type-specific elements vs type attribute

[Brunswick]

I am in the process of defining a protocol that my company will use to
communicate with its customers. At the moment I'm scratching my head
about one issue. Should I use type-specific elements to describe our
entities
e.g.
<blah>
<floorp>sloop</floorp>
<gloorp>droop</gloorp>
</blah>

or have a generic element with a type attribute e.g.

<datawad type="blah">
<datawad type="floorp">sloop</datawad>
<datawad type="gloorp">droop</datawad>
</datawad>

I can guess that the former would be easier to develop initially as it
would we more conducive to schema generators (e.g. web service tools
like Java2WSDL, etc.) but since it is tied to types change manangement
might be more difficult than in the latter case. Anyhoo any insight or
advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
D.

 

[Toni Uusitalo]

chapter 12 at
http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/books/effectivexml/
(chapter 11 might be worth reading too)

with respect,
Toni Uusitalo