Problems about the Spectrum Data Model from the view of a Web Service programmer

[Alasdair Allan]

Gerard wrote:
> I think irrespective of this, we might in the IVOA attempt to not  
> use mixed
> content in serialisations of data and metadata simply beacues of  
> examples as
> Alasdair mentions.

Actually I was arguing precisely the opposite point, I don't really  
see anything wrong with mixed content.

> We can do without and it will be much simpler to
> transform between different representations (code, databasesof a given
> underlying model if every data element is explcitily named.

Every data element is explicitly named in both examples I gave you.

> Mixed content will allow things that are hard to make sense of in an
> automated fashion, like
>
> <tag1>34<tag2>35</tag2>36<tag3>hello</tag3>76</tag1>

Err, no that's easier to make sense of in an automated fashion than  
it is to read, although re-arranging your example into a more human  
parsable version,  it's perfectly easy to understand as well...

<tag1>
    34 36 76
   <tag2>35</tag2>
   <tag3>hello</tag3>
</tag1>

In other words,

	tag1 		= [ 34, 36, 76 ]
	tag1.tag2 	= 35
	tag1.tag3 	= hello

> Such mixed content is fine fore (X)HTML documents, but imho should be
> avoided if possible for serialisations that are to be read by  
> machines.

Why? I don't understand why you'd find the above ambiguous?

Al.