[microformats-discuss] Are microformats "data-first"?

[Ryan King]

On Jul 29, 2005, at 10:19 AM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar wrote:
> <snip>
>
> In other words, microformats seem to explicitly embody a "data- 
> first -- but enable emergent structure later" philosophy, which is  
> why it is both attractive and annoying to the traditional XML crowd.

I would say that this is right on. I recently blogged about the  
benefits of "content first, structure later" here: http:// 
theryanking.com/blog/archives/2005/06/15/content-first-structure- 
later/ .

To quote myself:

 > it is difficult to figure out exactly what the structure of your  
data should be until the data is large enough to cause you pain.

So, not only do programmers spend an inordinate amount of time  
defining structure, defining it ahead of time Just Doesn't Work(TM).

-ryan