Yes! This would be an economical use of XML. Problem is, I just don't see
any value in it. It can't be used to populate a spreadsheet and it has no
semantic value. You'd be better off keeping the comma and saving 6
characters. But I think you're on the right track.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kay [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 6:20 PM
To: 'Peter Hunsberger'; 'Stephen E. Beller'
Cc:
Subject: RE: [xml-dev] Data streams
> Use the number 10, now the difference is 51 to 2 or a ratio of ~26 to
> 1. Use the number 100 and the ratio is 52 to 3 or ~17 to 1. Six
> digits? 56 to 6 or ~10 to 1. Now add multiple columns of data (as any
> realistic example would do) and the ratio falls even farther.
Now encode your six-digit numbers with a more economical tag such as
<d>123456</d>
and the ratio is 13:7. Might not be everyone's idea of best practice, but if
you want a compromise between size and explicitness then it might be the
right one for you.
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
