Feedback on arrays

• From: Robert van Engelen <engelen@cs.fsu.edu>
• Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 13:41:33 -0500 (EST)
• To: xml-dist-app@w3.org
• Message-Id: <200112131837.fBDIb5N12759@diablo.cs.fsu.edu>

Dear Glen,

You probably are already overrun with email on the sparse/p.t. arrays and
their merit or evil. I just would like you to read the following statement
in the hope it will help you make a decision (the following is a message
to soapbuilders@yahoogroups.com):

I did not see any strong argument why sparse and/or p.t. arrays are "evil".

Please consider the following reasoning:

Elements can be omitted from complexTypes such as Struct. Elements in Structs
are ordered with accessor (names), so the omission is clear from the absense
of an accessor.

Elements can be omitted from complexTypes such as arrays. In this case the
omission can ONLY be made clear with the position attribute since the ordering
of elements is positional.

Since both are complexTypes, why would anyone impose an artificial restriction
on arrays? Or is the omission of elements in Structs also an "evil" feature?

- Robert

Received on Thursday, 13 December 2001 15:10:21 UTC