RE: [xml-dev] Better design: "flatter is better" or "nesting is better" ?

["Doug Schepers" <doug@schepers.cc>]

 Hi-

I think I'm the one responsible for introducing the term "storage". I
accidentally sent this message only to Roger, so I'm forwarding it to the
list now.

For context, I work primarily with SVG, and I see most of my files as
permanent and canonical, not merely transport media. So, in this case, I
think that "storage" is an accurate term.

Regards-
Doug

doug . schepers  @ vectoreal.com
www.vectoreal.com ...for scalable solutions.

-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Schepers [mailto:doug@schepers.cc] 
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 3:56 PM
To: 'Costello, Roger L.'
Subject: RE: [xml-dev] Better design: "flatter is better" or "nesting is
better" ?

Hi, Roger-

| I am also supremely compelled by the argument to keep the markup 
| (tags) to a minimum.  So here's the third part of this hypothesis:
| 
| Part 3: Eliminate nonessential markup (tags).  Only use tags that are 
| actually used by your applications *today*.

I don't know that I can agree with that in all cases. If you intend this for
the simple transmission of data from one data source to a known consumer,
your hypothesis stands. But  when the XML format is intended as the storage
medium itself, or when you don't know who might be using your content, the
story is very different. 

Keep in mind that different applications or UA might consume the content
differently, for different purposes. The lesson from HTML (which is markup,
even when it's not XML) might be that traditional browsers present the
content one way, while a text-to-speech app reads it in a manner more
appropriate to that audience. 
  
Stripping out semantic information permanently ensures that the UA or target
application cannot easily grow to better present that content. Just because
your application doesn't process a particular piece of markup now doesn't
preclude its utility in a future verion of the application. Of course, you
can always transform richer content into sparser temporary content for
current usage, but you can't go the other way very easily.

Regards-
Doug

doug . schepers  @ vectoreal.com
www.vectoreal.com ...for scalable solutions.