Problem Statement

Problem Statement

Designers of documents using Markup often need to produce multiple output formats from the same source.

In the XML Toolchain this is typically done by starting with a normative XML document and then processing it to produce the needed output formats. There is a use case in which the document designers need to publish multiple normative formats instead of one. For example a Web Service may produce both XML and JSON data, both are considered equally normative.

How should designers of such documents design multiple normative formats?

Should they design all normative formats at the same time taking care that the information model is consistent?

Should they design in one markup format then translate that to another?

Should they design in an abstract markup format then translate that into all the normative formats?

What design rules and philosophies should be applied to make sure that multiple normative markup formats are equally useful?