Re: [xml-dev] How to design XML to have broad utility and yet alsoenable efficient application processing?
If XML is being used for document interchange then your XML design is predicated by the document formatting and content you wish to capture in your document. However, you seem to be aiming this at the data interchange world? If so, the question is the question you seem to be circling around is; should XML data interchange formats directly reflect the data models they are transporting? Given that this is data and not, therefore, an end product intended for humans I'd vote that the XML design should come after the data models are optimized for their various business purposes. The XML will then hopefully be as efficient of serialization of those models as possible. Note that, in my opinion, good data models are also not optimized for, or specific to, any one program. As I've noted before, _good_ data models span enterprises, least of all individual programs...
As to your last question, I certainly don't think applications should transform XML into forms that make it inefficient to process (duh)!
