>>This is all the more annoying that for structured data, it does not matter
>>that the <name> element precedes the <surname> or not.
>I disagree there - I like to be able to encode Asian and western names in
>their proper cultural order but still know which is the given and which is
>the family name.
Yes I can understand but for some development still it doesn't matter whether the <name>
or <surname> comes first.
I think Nicolas has a point which is exactly my case.
At 02:46 23-08-2001, Nicolas LEHUEN wrote:
>The problem is that when serializing certain data structure, it is not
>always easy to guarantee a particular element order.
>For example, if you serialize an hashtable by iterating over its cells, you
>can't predict the key ordering because it depends on the hash code
>algorithm, the size of the hashing array, etc.
I think that such functionality should be at least left optional also on DTDs.
cheers.
-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher R. Maden [mailto:crism@maden.org]
Sent: 23 August 2001 11:18
To: 'xml-dev@lists.xml.org'
Subject: RE: Elements order:
At 02:46 23-08-2001, Nicolas LEHUEN wrote:
>What if we add an <age> element now ? Then a <gender> element ? The content
>model will explode. You need something like the <all> content model of XSDL.
>I've heard that there is a way to express this in SGML DTDs, but it has been
>dropped in XML, is that true ?
Yes. SGML had an "and" connector:
<!ELEMENT data - - (name & surname & age & gender)>
would require exactly one each of name, surname, age, and gender, in any order.
However, there were concerns that the way SGML mandated the interpretation
of this content model was not easily implemented. This capability, without
SGML's restrictions, is back in Schemas.
>This is all the more annoying that for structured data, it does not matter
>that the <name> element precedes the <surname> or not.
I disagree there - I like to be able to encode Asian and western names in
their proper cultural order but still know which is the given and which is
the family name.
-Chris
--
Christopher R. Maden, XML Consultant
DTDs/schemas - conversion - ebooks - publishing - Web - B2B - training
<URL: http://crism.maden.org/consulting/ >
PGP Fingerprint: BBA6 4085 DED0 E176 D6D4 5DFC AC52 F825 AFEC 58DA
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