Michael, you wrote: "I was not intending to suggest that a systems architecture has to be based on XML in order to be considered "good"."
And I did not intend to say that, neither, but I expressed myself unfortunately, writing: "XML representation can help to establish very clearly"; you probably read that as "XML representation of the architecture", whereas I meant "XML representation of
resources".
But I have yet a question. You wrote: "uniformity of data model and systems architecture across a system".
Q: Do you mean uniformity *within* the data model and *within* the realm of representations; OR do you mean also a uniformity which *spans* across the gap between data model and representations, enabling clear alignments. The latter, by the way, was what I attempted to
say (writing "establish the relationships between document content and system structure").
Hans-Jürgen
Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> schrieb am 11:00 Freitag, 4.April 2014:
In response to Arjun Ray saying: "Data should be stored in formats appropriate to purpose. Systems are built to satisfy business requirements, not to propitiate theories."
Michael Kay wrote: "I think that kind of statement grossly undervalues the contribution that good systems architecture can make to business success."
Seen in the light of to what it responds, this is an amazing statement. Perhaps I misread it, but it suggests to me this thought: XML representation excels in the clarity and explicitness of structure; system architecture establishes important large-scale structures; XML representation can help to establish very clearly the relationships between document content
and system structure - between document and large context, that is - and to align content items with items of system architecture.
I was not intending to suggest that a systems architecture has to be based on XML in order to be considered "good".
I do think that uniformity of data model and data representation across a system help enormously in ensuring the architectural coherence of the system, and an architecture based on end-to-end XML can help to achieve that goal.
