Re: [xml-dev] XML basics

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

On 3/1/11 7:12 AM, Andrew Welch wrote:
> Hmm, in my experience when people 'get' that xml is a tree of nodes,
> and not a flat string, then everything else falls into place...

I suspect that's true for certain categories of programmers - those who 
don't care much about the syntax but just want to throw things in and 
out of it.  XML-as-API, not XML-as-XML.

My experience has left me convinced that while the students might feel 
better about the experience if they're fed that abstraction, however, 
they end up learning very little about XML itself - and worse, have a 
harder time learning it later, in the event that it's necessary.

I have, of course, pretty much abandoned the field of teaching XML for a 
few years, and enjoyed the resulting drop in blood pressure.

-- 
Simon St.Laurent
http://simonstl.com/