Michael Good wrote:
> We have had feedback from some users - not a lot, though - that they would like
> to see MusicXML make more use of default values for attributes. If you are
> using a validating parser, this should make some code easier to write, but I am
> not sure it is worth the tradeoffs. I was wondering what people think current
> "best practices" are in this area. I don't see it covered in Effective XML or
> in other online writings on XML style.
You aren't looking in the right chapter. :-) Item 18, "Include all
information in instance documents" strongly recommends against using
default attribute values. The problem arises when processing documents
with tools like browsers that don't read the DTD.
I wasn't aware of the problem with editors cluttering the display with
default attribute values (I mostly use plain text editors myself) but
that sounds like another good reason to avoid default attribute values.
--
Elliotte Rusty Harold
XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/ref=nosim
