Subject: RE: (dsssl) Attributes to Elements From: "Mason, James David (MXM) " <mxm@xxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 09:55:52 -0400 |
What gets represented as element data and what gets represented as attribute data has been a subject of philosophical discussion since the earliest days of SGML development, now about two decades ago. In many cases, it's a matter of personal taste, since just about anything except a very long text string (or something with included element markup, of course) can be put in an attribute. One reason for putting things in attributes is that (before XML Schema) attributes were the only things in SGML subject to any sort of datatype checking at all. In some SGML/XML applications involving metadata (e.g., RDF and Topic Maps), almost all content is carried in attributes rather than as element data. (And the old-timers recognize that element data is a specialization of attribute data, where the GI is the attribute name and the element content is the attribute value. We simply invented a special notation called start tags and end tags rather than using an equals sign and quote marks.) Jim Mason James David Mason, Ph.D. Y-12 National Security Complex Bldg. 9113, M.S. 8208 P.O. Box 2009 Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-8208 +1 865 574 6973 Chairman, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/ornlsc34oldhome.htm DSSSList info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist
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