Wednesday afternoon, it’s still cold in Stockholm.
I am still wondering if there is a simple way to model XML document types in UML – and I am not the only one looking for a quick fix. But the gurus obviously don’t think there is one.
On Eclectic yesterday, some people were saying RDF seemed both complicated and impractical – yes, I agree with that! Not much a developer can use right now.
Standard DTDs are almost certainly too limited for building real applications. But Simon St Laurent says: “DTDs are here-and-now, while XML Schemas, in large part, are for the future.”.
XML Schema is indeed an unfinished standard with all kinds of complexities hanging loose. Rational has tried at least once to model it in UML. I don’t know the reason they picked this particular kind of XML Schema – but there are several others. Here is the one Microsoft use in Internet Explorer. Looks very usable these days – is there any catch? I don’t know yet.
Cafe Con Leche linked to AT&T Labs and some danish guys who have yet another way to define document types. DSD really does look very clean and nice – but it won’t ever be a large standard.
What to do? I keep digging.