[XML-SIG] A bit off topic: XML advice needed...

[Fred L. Drake]

Stuart Hungerford writes:
 > I wondering if it's possible to apply markup design
 > principles on one hand (e.g. using an attribute .vs.
 > an element) and also achieve a re-useable and 
 > easily grown DTD?

Stuart,
  I DTD design is new for you, I'd start by A) just doing it, and B)
reading about it.  There are at least three books I'm aware of:  Eve
Maler's "Designing SGML DTDs" (which is pretty good), Dave Megginson's 
"Structuring XML Documents" (which I haven't had time to read), and
Rick Jelliffe's "The XML/SGML Cookbook" (which I also not had time to
read).
  Once you've done that a bit, the issues begin to become more clear,
and you'll see how the difficulties and alternatives interact.  I'd
have to say this is far more art than science!


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.	     <fdrake@acm.org>
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
1895 Preston White Dr.	    Reston, VA  20191