Re: Notation for XML nested tags?

["Mark Baker" <listsub -at- analecta -dot- com>]

Stevenson, Rebecca wrote


>  If tag foo is always used inside tag bar, when I refer to tag foo I
wanted to mention bar so my
> users keep the relationship in mind as they make their changes to the
file.
>
> 1) Is this a dumb idea?

Depends on the DTD design. If element names have absolute semantics (they
mean the same in all contexts regardless of where they occur) it may not be
necessary. If element names have relative semantics (their meaning changes
based on the context in which they occur) then it is essential.

For data oriented DTD's absolute semantics are the norm. For markup oriented
DTD's relative semantics are more common.

> 2) Is there a standard way of noting these relationships as there is for
code? foo.bar, or something?

Yes, there is a standard. It's called XPATH. Basically its foo/bar, but look
it up to get the details. (foo.bar doesn't work because markup names can
contain periods. foo.bar would be seen as one element name.)

---
Mark Baker
Analecta Communications
www.analecta.com
+1 613 614 5881



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