Re: [xml-dev] 3 XML Design Principles

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

/ "Roger L. Costello" <costello@mitre.org> was heard to say:
[...]
| XML Design Principle #3
|
| Minimize the amount of nesting you use.
|
| Nested data is tightly coupled and uses implicit relationships, both of
| which are bad.
|
| Flat data is good data!
|
| Flat data is loosely coupled and promotes the use of explicit relationships,
| both of which are good.
|
| Comments?  /Roger

Off the top of my head?

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.
                            --Alexandre Dumas

Simplification good!  Oversimplification bad!
                            --Larry Wall

With sufficient markup, the important relationships in your data can
be perserved across transformations. Need to write an application that
can move a 100 pickers around in 1000 lots? Tease the lots and the
pickers apart, using pointers to preserve their locations, and shuffle
at will. Need to produce a table showing all the lots and which
pickers are in them? Shuffle it all together into a tabular structure.
I don't think any of your suggestions qualify as design rules
in the general case.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com> | A man may by custom fortify himself
http://nwalsh.com/            | against pain, shame, and suchlike
                              | accidents; but as to death, we can
                              | experience it but once, and are all
                              | apprentices when we come to it.--
                              | Montaigne

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