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copied!<p>I believe that your question is just the same as abstract vs. concrete, or key/value pair vs. structure, etc. I also think that it is not that specific to XML, as it would equally present itself to an OO programmer; or a database designer; asking about a best practice is the same as asking about the best religion...</p> <p>Let’s look at your options:</p> <p>Option 1 is a metamodel: it describes what a question is. Option 2 is a model: it describes what you’re asking. </p> <p>Option 1 is the sys schema in every database. Option 2 is the user defined schema in a particular database.</p> <p>Option 1 is "technical": is about IT folks building great infrastructure for questionnaires. Option 2 is all about the “business” the questionnaire is about.</p> <p>One issue is that <em>1</em> is more verbose than <em>2</em> (<strong>runtime overhead</strong>); <em>2</em> requires more upfront analysis about what are we asking (<strong>design-time overhead</strong>). <em>1</em> is better positioned to accommodate new questions or extending what a question is about, e.g. a difficulty level or how long it took to get an answer (<strong>extensibility</strong>). The XSD for <em>2</em> is self-contained and self-describing of how to properly consume an instance XML (<strong>usability of the spec</strong>).</p> <p>In my experience, ability to implement cheap, and manage change cheap, is very important (<strong>cost of ownership</strong>); unfortunately, these may also be perceived differently by providers and consumers of services. Finding that sweet spot, a practicable design - your question basically – will need to take more into account, along the lines I’ve tried to describe above.</p> <p>Strictly speaking to some of the issues you mentioned about Option 1: strong typing, as an example, could be alleviated by using simple choices or a substitution group. However, this kind of stuff will not substantially change any of what I said.</p> <p>Considering the above then, I’ll annotate your question, to put things right where they belong.</p> <p><em>Are there any general best practices for these kind of design decisions <code>see my reference in choosing a “religion”</code>, or an obvious reason why one approach would cause fewer headaches than the other <code>it all depends on many more things which you didn’t mention</code>, or does this really just depend on the particular set of data being represented and how it will be processed <code>yes, to a high degree</code>?</em></p>

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