Re: DTD Question

Jack Bolles (jbolles@homeaccount.com)
Tue, 20 Oct 1998 14:43:44 -0400


Putting aside the ability to specify datatypes, you could always make FIRST and LAST attributes of the respective elements.

Also, aren't positional names (first, last) too presentational without describing the data? For instance, replace FIRST with GIVEN and LAST with FAMILY. (This might make the DTD more reusable in countries that don't order their names the same as most western countries as well.)

Finally, would it make sense to encapsulate frequently used elements such as NAME within their own DTD?

Regards,
Jack

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Jack Bolles
Software Engineer
http://users.homeaccount.com/~jbolles/CV.html
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Samuel R. Blackburn wrote:

> I just attended a briefing about XML. One of the things
> that struck me was, if I understand the presenter, DTD
> thinks the world is flat. Is it possible for DTD to describe
> elements of the same name but have different meaning?
>
> Consider the following:
>
> <NAME>
> <FIRST>Sam</FIRST>
> <LAST>Blackburn</LAST>
> </NAME>
> <ROUTE>
> <FIRST>99.409</FIRST>
> <LAST>2091.7785</LAST>
> </ROUTE>
>
> Is it possible in DTD to say that NAME.FIRST is a string
> and ROUTE.FIRST is a number?