Re: [xml-dev] Should information be encoded into identifiers?

[Mukul Gandhi <gandhi.mukul@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 3:27 AM, Costello, Roger L. <costello@mitre.org> wrote:
> Or, should information be encoded into identifiers? What information should be encoded
> into them?

I think, there may not be an universal design guideline for this. Some
problem domains may benefit from encoding information into
identifiers, and some won't get benefit from this.

Encoding information into identifiers has advantage, that this is good
design. Imagine, if we just represent ISBN numbers simply like 1, 2, 3
.... INF. The simplistic design could be applied to any domain (say
the vehicle no's too).

If a vehicle no is say, 10000 I don't believe this is a useful string
to derive information about the vehicle. Encoding information is
certainly useful.

It is also useful to know some properties about the object, by
visually looking at the identifier.

I think, not encoding information into the identifier is ok in a
localized environment (we could say have, person-id's 1, 2, 3, .....
INF and this may work in certain situations).


-- 
Regards,
Mukul Gandhi