Re: [xml-dev] Measure the complexity of one DTD versus another?

["David Megginson" <david.megginson@gmail.com>]

On 16/07/07, Mattio Valentino <mattio.valentino@gmail.com> wrote:

> I was asked an interesting question on Friday.  Is there a way to
> measure the complexity of our new DTD versus our old DTD?
>
> I haven't come up with anything too concrete.  Our new DTD has far
> fewer tags, but it's more rigid.  Based on that, I'd say the new is
> less complex.  Unfortunately, I think the real issue is that because
> it's more rigid, it's harder for off-shore companies to convert large
> quantities of documents to the new DTD simply because it doesn't
> accept as much "garbage" tagging.
>
> Has anyone else answered such a question?  How did you do it?

I could hurl all kinds of metrics at you, but they all come down to
the same question, which you've already touched on -- "more complex"
for which audience?

1. People or programs *producing* documents?

2. People or programs *processing* documents?

A document model is always a tradeoff in complexity between these two
groups, since more options make documents easier to write but harder
to process, while fewer options make documents harder to write but
easier to process.  You probably have to develop two separate answers
to your question.


All the best,


David