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

[Peter Hunsberger <peter.hunsberger@gmail.com>]

On 10/5/05, Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> wrote:
> > > 1. Persistent XML: the XML document is persistent.
> > Applications operate
> > > directly on the XML document.
> > >
> > > 2. Transient XML: upon arrival at its destination the data may be
> > > transformed into some other format (language objects,
> > relational database,
> > > etc) that applications work with.
> > >
> > > 3. Application XML: the XML document is the application.
> > > Question:
> >
> > Umm, isn't that only two dimensions?  Aren't persistent and transient
> > just points on a single temporal axis? (Which brings me back to my
> > question of when does a document change from being persistent to
> > transient or vice versa?)  I think at best you can have a single axis
> > that measure the length of time for which the document exists.  Still
> > not sure that this helps any, but lets continue...
>
> I don't think it's the lifespan of the document that matters, it's the
> number of people/applications who will read it and the predictability of the
> way they will use it. Transient = 1 predictable recipient, Persistent = many
> unpredictable recipients.
>

I like that number of recipients as a measure. It seems to be
independent of the duration of the document so I'd prefer it if the
terminology didn't confuse the issue.  The extent to which the
recipients are predictable or not also seems somewhat independent
though there certainly can be a coupling to number of recipients. I'm
not sure what design rules fall out of considering these axis either
together or independently?

--
Peter Hunsberger