[dev-biblio] another, more radical, possibility

I originally had them as elements, but a long time back decided to
change to attributes. My reasoning was that a) I can’t really imagine
needing that, and b) allowing it adds complexity all around. Imagine,
for example, creating a GUI editor for it.

Also, ODF has prefix and suffix attributes in some places already.

That said, it’s not like I’m 100% confident in these decisions. I think
they involve design trade-offs, and am not always sure I’m choosing
right (which is why these emails!).

Bruce

Using usual XML parsers as I know them from Java it is not easier or
more
difficult to parse or write elements than attributes.

The issues I’m concerned about (beyond file size, which is
substantially smaller now) are not parsing or serializing, so much as
mapping to native objects, and GUI implementations. Beyond OOo, say one
wanted to write a web-based CSL editor using Javascript for the logic?

I may be needlessly worrying about this; am not sure.

Anyway, my opinion is NOT to use such “flattened” layout.

OK, thanks for the feedback.

Bruce