On 2021-09-21 19:46:19 -0700, Dan Stromberg wrote: > On Tue, Sep 21, 2021 at 7:26 PM Michael F. Stemper < > michael.stem...@gmail.com> wrote: > > If XML is not the way to package data, what is the recommended > > approach? > > > > I prefer both JSON and YAML over XML. > > XML has both elements and tags, but it didn't really need both.
I think you meant "both elements and attributes". Tags are how you
denote elements, so they naturally go together.
I agree that for representing data (especially object-oriented data) the
distiction between (sub-)elements and attributes seems moot (should
represent that field as an attribute or a field?), but don't forget that
XML was intended to replace SGML, and that SGML was intended to mark up
text, not represent any data.
Would you really want to write
<p>Mr. <party role="defendant">Smith</person>s point was corroborated by
Ms. <witness>Jones</witness> point that <quote>bla, bla</quote>, which
seemed more plausibe than Mr. <party role="plaintiff">Willam</party>
claim that <quote>blub, blub</quote>.
as
<p>Mr. <party role><defendant/>Smith</person>s point was corroborated by
Ms. <witness>Jones</witness> point that <quote>bla, bla</quote>, which
seemed more plausibe than Mr. <party role><plaintiff/>Willam</party>
claim that <quote>blub, blub</quote>.
or
<p>Mr. <party role><defendant>Smith<(defendant></person>s point was
corroborated by Ms. <witness>Jones</witness> point that <quote>bla,
bla</quote>, which seemed more plausibe than Mr. <party>
<plaintiff/>Willam</plaintiff></party> claim that <quote>blub,
blub</quote>.
?
I probably chose an example (no doubt influenced by the fact that SGML
was originally invented to digitize court decisions) which is too simple
(in HTML I often see many attributes on a single element, even with
CSS), but even here you can see that attributes add clarity.
hp
--
_ | Peter J. Holzer | Story must make more sense than reality.
|_|_) | |
| | | h...@hjp.at | -- Charles Stross, "Creative writing
__/ | http://www.hjp.at/ | challenge!"
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