Re: xsd:list should allow a 'delimiter' attribute

This has been debated many times, with good points on both sides:

Pro:  pretty much the ones you indicate.  There are lots of lists in the 
world that are carried around with a variety of separators, and the 
proposed type would allow us to represent them.

Cons:  a) violates keep it simple b) lists are already controversial...in 
that better markup would be to use explicit elements.  Soon we'll be 
asking whether XSL templates can conveniently iterate over the delimited 
lists, whether query can get at the sub items, and generally re-inventing 
all the mechanisms we already have for dealing with sequences in XML.

So, I'm not saying it's clearly a bad idea, just that it's been debated 
and the workgroup took a middle ground:  we resisted the calls from those 
who said we should not do lists at all, and we resisted (so far) the 
suggestions to support smarter lists with delimiters.

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Noah Mendelsohn                              Voice: 1-617-693-4036
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"Don Smith" <Don_Smith@haley.com> (by way of "C. M. Sperberg-McQueen" 
<cmsmcq
Sent by: www-xml-schema-comments-request@w3.org
10/02/2002 03:08 PM

 
        To:     W3C XML Schema Comments list <www-xml-schema-comments@w3.org>
        cc:     (bcc: Noah Mendelsohn/Cambridge/IBM)
        Subject:        xsd:list should allow a 'delimiter'   attribute






Wouldn't it be useful if xsd:list allowed an attribute called "delimiter"?

<xsd:simpleType name="listOfString">
   <xsd:list itemType="xsd:string" delimiter="%"/>
</xsd:simpleType>

<xsd:element name="listOfString" type="listOfString">

Then one could write

<listOfString>John Jones, Jr.%Martin Marly%Francis F. 
Farley</listOfString>



Donald A. Smith, PhD
dsmith@haley.com, (412) 741-6420
<http://www.haley.com>
The Haley Enterprise, Inc.
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Received on Wednesday, 2 October 2002 15:39:57 UTC