pcplantdb

[John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

>  > A good XML DTD could specify the API in a straight forward way.
>  > I've done stuff like this in other projects, and its got lots of 
> advantages.
>
> I don't agree.  I see the API and the DTD as different things.  The
> API shouldn't have anything to do with XML other than the fact that
> calls within the API return XML data.  Clients are solely responsible
> to render XML as they see fit.

OK, Chad's comment has clarified this issue for me...this is what I mean 
with my previous comment on Rich's comment...

What I mean is, what Chad said...API calls return XML-marked-up data; 
clients do their own thing with what they get back from the API.

API is all about data engine functionality.

Our XML is all about however we need to mark up the raw data so that 
clients can interpret that data appropriately.

The embedded link issue is one example.
It needs to be marked up in returned data such that clients can know it 
is a link (in case that matters to them).
Meanwhile, the API doesn't give a fig if there's an embedded link in 
what it returns or not...it just returns what it's asked for, which may 
include an appropriately marked-up embedded link.

This doesn't exclude the API having a call that returns all embedded 
links findable in the data set, if that's something we want/need to 
do... :-)

hi ho,
John S.


--

John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
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