[SML] Whether to support Attribute or not?

[Rick Jelliffe]

From: Don Park <donpark at docuverse.com> 

>I believe it is now time to address the question of
>whether Attribute should be supported in SML or not.
 
Because it is convenient for programming. 

It seems that most XML programs are written so that
the elements "push" programs but attributes values
are "pulled" in.  So the programmer does not need
to concern themselves with attributes that are redundant
to their task.  To make everything an element would 
reduce the choices available to a programmer.

Are you talking about syntax or labelling here?  You can
see that some people say "lets remove attributes and
have '<sml:attribute>' instead".  Others say "lets
remove comments and have 'comment' instead". This is
not a simplification at all: the handling of these
has to be handled by subsequent layers (or, worst, by
the programmer explicitly: will we have to put in
    comment { display: none }
    sml:attribute {display: none}
into every CSS stylesheet?   

Rick Jelliffe


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