Do you enjoy neighborhoods where every house looks the same?

["Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>]

Hi Folks,

Here is my interpretation of Simon's Balisage paper (Simon, please correct any errors in my interpretation):

If you are like me, you like variety in neighborhoods. You don't enjoy neighborhoods in which every house looks the same.

So why do we create the analog with XML Schemas? We create XML Schemas that result in XML instances which are replications of one another. Boring.

Boring and not helpful to users who need the right set of markup and data, not a cookie-cutter set of markup and data.

Infinite replication is lousy, especially if it's replication of something that doesn't fit anyone well.

Forcing everyone to use the same XML vocabulary to describe different use cases is really bad.

I suggest for your consideration the following approach to designing XML Schemas: create an XML Schema that contains a smorgasbord of well-defined, semantically-rich elements. Then, work with your users to create XML instances by picking and choosing elements that are meaningful to their specific needs.

/Roger