Re: [xml-dev] Include data that may be objectively generated some day?

["Pete Cordell" <petexmldev@codalogic.com>]

One problem I've found with interchange formats that use descriptive names 
is that people have a tendency to guess what the field does based solely on 
its name.  This is especially the case if they can't readily find a 
description for it.

You may find that a de-facto definition of the field emerges before the 
original syntax designers get around to defining what the real field means. 
The result is that the field doesn't realise its original intent.

Or you may find that every user comes up with their own definition and the 
field is also rendered useless!

HTH,

Pete Cordell
Codalogic Ltd
Interface XML to C++ the easy way using C++ XML
data binding to convert XSD schemas to C++ classes.
Visit http://codalogic.com/lmx/ or http://www.xml2cpp.com
for more info
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
To: <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 1:44 PM
Subject: [xml-dev] Include data that may be objectively generated some day?



Hi Folks,

Is it good or bad to include, in an XML document, data that is currently not 
objectively generated but may be in the future?

Please allow me to explain.

Example: Below is information about a book. Suppose that today's 
applications effectively process its markup and data:

<Book>
      <Title>_________</Title>
      <Author>_________</Author>
      <Date>_________</Date>
      <ISBN>_________</ISBN>
      <Publisher>_________</Publisher>
</Book>

Now, consider the problem of determining how "enlightening" a book is. 
Assume that there are no objective rules for determining the 
enlightenment-capability of a book. Manual determination of the 
enlightenment-capability of a book is subjective and yields mixed results. 
Thus, automating the determination of the enlightenment-capability of a book 
is problematic.

Nonetheless, the developers of the Book XML vocabulary decide that someday 
it may be possible to objectively measure the enlightenment-capability of a 
book and applications will make decisions based on enlightenment-capability 
data. So they decide (today) to require that each book contain an 
<Enlightenment-Capability> element:

<Book>
      <Enlightenment-Capability>__________</Enlightenment-Capability>
      <Title>_________</Title>
      <Author>_________</Author>
      <Date>_________</Date>
      <ISBN>_________</ISBN>
      <Publisher>_________</Publisher>
</Book>

Since the XML documents contain enlightenment-capability data application 
developers figure "Hey, let's use it."  So, suppose applications (today) 
start making decisions based on the data in the  <Enlightenment-Capability> 
element. What will be the consequence?

More generally, what will be the consequence of adding this element to the 
Book XML vocabulary?

/Roger

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