FCS and large documents

Hi,

Could the currently defined FCS be made more convenient for large documents?

A long example - From Jon Bosak's Old Testament markup, Psalm 119:176:

<f:fcs xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/XML/Fragment/1.0" ...>
<!-- this is a simplified model, intended to make a point. Some elements
have been omitted -->
<tstmt>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
  <book>
    <chapter>
    <chapter>
    <chapter>
    ... > 100 chapters omitted ...
    <chapter>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
      <div>
        <v>
        <v>
        <v>
        <v>
        <v>
        <v>
        <v>
          <f:fragbody/>
        </v>
        </v>
        </v>
        </v>
        </v>
        </v>
        </v>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
      </div>
    </chapter>
    ... >100 /chapters omitted
    </chapter>
    </chapter>
    </chapter>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
  </book>
</tstmt>
</f:fcs>

Compared to all that, the fragment body would be:
<v>I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not
forget thy commandments.</v>

It seems to me that, for DTD-based, or even Schema-based XML, long runs of
identical sibling elements can typically occur.

Therefore I propose a "repeat" attribute to be added to the Fragment
Interchange Namespace. The above example would then look like this:

<f:fcs xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/XML/Fragment/1.0" ...>
<tstmt>
  <book f:repeat="19">
    <chapter f:repeat="119">
      <div f:repeat="22">
        <v f:repeat="7">
          <f:fragbody/>
        </v>
      </div>
    </chapter>
  </book>
</tstmt>
</f:fcs>

Admittedly, not every document will benefit as much as this somewhat
contrived example -- for instance, documents that don't have long runs of
identical elements, or differing attributes on otherwise identical elements.
Still, I believe that this could be seen as a welcome change for people that
will deal with fragments of large documents.

The implementation impact of this change should be minimal, and might even
reduce the memory requirements of an implementation.

Thanks,

.micah

Received on Thursday, 22 April 1999 20:02:39 UTC