[SML] Whether to support Attribute or not?

[Pavel Velikhov]

Don Park wrote:
> 
> I believe it is now time to address the question of
> whether Attribute should be supported in SML or not.
>

I am not a frequent participant here, but I am opposed 
to the use of attributes in the XML as it is happening 
right now. What I don't like is the way query languages 
for XML suffer because of the attributes.

Attributes require a special syntax in the XML query 
languages, just like in XML itself. Instead
of writing OQL-ish path expressions like:
	homes.home.id

you will have to write:
	<homes> <home id=_ /> </homes> in XML-QL or similar
languages. XQL also does not treat attributes and element
equally.

If you don't know whether the object you are picking is an
attribute or an element, you will have to write a disjunction.
There could also be a case when an element has an attribute
and a subelement with the same name, you might have to
guard against such case. I.e. things get messy fast.

So I think if attributes are out, a lot of XML tools, including 
query processors will get simpler. Also there will be less 
opportunity for the users to screw up when using these tools.

Pavel Velikhov
pvelikho at cs.ucsd.edu
http://www.db.ucsd.edu

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