Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

Naming Elements

Now we get to the question of why I chose this particular XML grammar and approach to naming Elements. We're agnostic to the name of the root Element, and the reason for this should be fairly obvious. The root Element doesn't end up in the output CSV file and I'm not validating against a DTD or schema. If I were validating, the root name would matter a lot. Likewise, the choice of Row to represent a row should be fairly noncontroversial. The only thing likely to cause anyone any heartburn is the way I named the column Elements. But, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you can't please all the people all the time.

The problem here is that there isn't any basis for an absolute, cut-and-dried choice; it's a matter of tradeoffs. I will ...