Java class != XML entity

David Megginson david at megginson.com
Wed Aug 12 14:06:05 BST 1998


len bullard writes:
 > David Megginson wrote:
 > 
 > > As far as I may be allowed to compare tropical and temperate tree
 > > fruit, the equivalent of a Java class is a complete XML document.
 > 
 > Class or an object of a class?  

Exactly -- here's where such analogies can fall flat on their
collective faces.

On can argue that the XML document type is equivalent to an abstract
Java interface, that the XML document is equivalent to a class
implementing that interface, and that the various transformations of
that XML document (formatted output, database tables, lawn-sprinkler
spinning, etc.) are equivalent to Java objects instantiating the
class.

On the other hand, as you point out, it is just as easy to argue that
the document type is the equivalent to the class, and that the
document is equivalent to an object instatiating the class.

Perhaps we're best letting each fruit stick to its own tree.

 > ... Colonized namespaces can contain property values from different
 > classes of objects in a single document yes?  To me as an SGMLer, a
 > colonized document *looks like* an SGML document with multiple
 > doctype statements.

Or a class implementing multiple interfaces (sorry, I couldn't
resist).


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 david at megginson.com
           http://www.megginson.com/

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