RE: [xml-dev] 2 questions about Relax NG: ID/IDREF datatype and w hitesp

[Len Bullard <len.bullard@uai.com>]

Maybe I can simplify:

I see it wherever the main design goal is to separate presentation from
content.  

IOW, generic containers vs application specific entities.

Bits like CAP transport information for a generic task.  The specifics of a
given task get buried in the dropdown lists of the GUI.  So yes,
model-driven development is a part of the behavior but because of the
dynamic generation to a generic container.  Yes, I expect it in RADs but
RADs are not very good with the dropdown-driven data entry.  If one doesn't
create the lookup tables, the RAD has nothing to work with although it might
make a bad attempt at language translation management for the GUI.

Consider the original markup dilemma:  gen-coding vs semantic tagging.

len


From: Peter Hunsberger [mailto:peter.hunsberger@gmail.com] 

 On Nov 15, 2007 4:09 PM, Len Bullard <len.bullard@uai.com> wrote:
> The interesting questions
>
> 1.  Are such ratios common?
>

Sorta doubt it. If you've got well defined business rules people tend
to hard code everything and assume the rationale behind the now
embedded / partially hidden metadata is well understood...

> 2.  Why do some designs or domains have such high proportions of metadata
> entities to data entities?
>

If you look at where people are using EAV type databases you'll see
Research and Clinical trials come up; we're both, so I guess that
partially explains it for us: basically, if you're going to do
dynamically generated GUI's  you're going to need configuration tools
that both create and consume metadata in large quantities.

The other existing area that might see large ratios is where RAD tools
are prevalent.  Which makes me think that with a tend towards model
driven development this might start to become more common in other
domains as well.


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