Are you an XML scientist? Do you observe data in the wild and thencreate

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

Hi Folks,

A physicist observes nature and then creates a model of what he observed. The model often takes the form of a mathematical equation.

A linguist observes usage of a language and then creates a model of what he observed. The model often takes the form of a context-free grammar. This is nicely expressed by the following passage from a wonderful book that I am reading:
   
	If we ignore enough detail we can 
	recognize an underlying context-free 
	structure in the sentences of a natural
 	language, for example, English:

	Sentence --> Subject Verb Object
	Subject --> NounPhrase
	Object --> NounPhrase
	...

So the physicist and the linguist behave in much the same way: they observe nature and then model its laws/structure.

Here's another relevant passage from the book that I am reading:

	Scenario: you observe a pattern in the 
	strings that you are dealing with. So you 
	create a grammar to describe the pattern.

Do you do this? Do you follow the same mode of behavior as the physicist and the linguist when creating XML: do you observe streams and collections of data in the wild, determine the data's inherent structure, and then create a model (grammar) to reflect the structure? How do you ensure that the XML you create reflects the structure of the data? How do you determine the structure of data? Would you share a story of how you observed, determined structure, and then created a model (XML grammar)  of the data?

/Roger