Re: SD2 - Structured Attributes [fmt]

I might be missing something here.  I'll give my thoughts hoping that
I haven't badly misunderstood things (and expecting to be elucidated
if I have misunderstood things).

As has been discussed for years in SGML circles and elsewhere and is, I'm 
sure, obvious to all on this list, what's made an attribute and what's made 
element content for any given element type is somewhat arbitrary.  Since 
SGML syntax is designed to give structure to elements and not to attributes, 
if you want structure, use elements.  I do not see the advantage of this
proposal, and I see lots that concerns me.

I get the sense that at least one reason behind this proposal is the idea
that element content is somehow "something to be displayed" and attribute
content is not.  I do not feel this is true, and I would not want us to
add structure to attributes to accomplish what style sheets should do.

If another motivation is related to data typing, I'd prefer we work on
a way (beyond XML-lang, but perhaps some additional spec) to data type
element content (perhaps as well as attribute values) rather than to
add structure to atributes. 

paul

Received on Monday, 19 May 1997 20:03:40 UTC