RE: [xsl] attribute nodes

["Michael Fitzgerald" <mike@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris,

I'm not trying to solve any big problems here -- it just seems odd that a
node is not a child node because of its label. I also think it is
interesting that because an attribute is always a leaf, it can be neither a
parent or a child.  Are there other examples of such "bobbles" on trees or
is it common in data models to have semi-nodes? I trow not. Nonetheless,
this is not dangerous nor does it ever seem difficult to process attribute
nodes. It is merely amusing.

I appreciate your insights into WG wranglings.

-Mike

Chris Maden wrote:
> And Michael Kay answered, accurately, to my recollection.  What
> additional
> information are you seeking?
>
> You'll note that the Aho & Ullman definition appears almost
> verbatim in the
> XML 1.0 Recommendation.  It applies only to elements - a child
> element has
> a parent element, and a parent element may have child elements.  XPath
> adopted that model, and extended the terminology where it was
> logical: for
> comments, processing instructions, and text nodes, which are
> ordered within
> the three.  Attributes are not children; I've never seen a discussion of
> XML that describes them as such, and they don't fit with the
> observed user
> expectations of children.  They are illustrated as decorations on
> a tree or
> tags on boxes, not as descendants or nested boxes.
>
> But this presents a problem.  We have the attribute axis for referencing
> attribute nodes, distinct from the child axis.  But an attribute has an
> "owner" that it is interesting to discuss; what do we call it?  There was
> some considerable debate about breaking the symmetry of child and parent,
> but for simplicity and least surprise (except among hard-core CS nerds),
> the final decision seems to have worked well.
>
> -Chris
> --
> Christopher R. Maden, XML Consultant
> DTDs/schemas - conversion - ebooks - publishing - Web - B2B - training
> <URL: http://crism.maden.org/consulting/ >
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>
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