Re: [xml-dev] Attribute Order (Was: Create XML )

[David Megginson <david@megginson.com>]

AndrewWatt2000@aol.com writes:

 > > Personally, I'm not convinced that attributes were a great
 > > idea. Though they were a much better idea than namespaces.
 > 
 > What do you feel would have been better, rather than having
 > attributes?

This is a debate that long predates XML.  You'd have something like

  <a>
   <href>http://www.megginson.com/</href>
   Megginson Technologies Ltd.
  </a>

instead of

  <a href="http://www.megginson.com/";>Megginson Technologies Ltd.</a>

There is no information that I can think of that could not be
represented in XML or SGML without attributes, and attributes add a
noticeable amount of additional complexity to XML APIs.

Personally, I like attributes and I'm glad that we took them from
SGML, but I won't pretend that there's any justification other than
stylistic preference.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson, david@megginson.com, http://www.megginson.com/