Key principles for working with elements
1. Specification as the source of truth
Consumers should only rely on data according to the element schema, and not make assumptions on undocumented data returned by an API. This goes both ways - element producers should strive to only serve data according to the official element specification or specifically label data as internal.
2. Write generic handlers
When parsing an element tree, consumers should gracefully handle elements that do not provide the representation your feature needs to be unlocked.
Consumers can’t expect an element to always provide the derived representations they did earlier.
3. Immutability
A specific revision of an element should be immutable. It’s representations and other properties should not change. Editing an element should lead to the creation of a new revision, and updating references to the new revision is necessary for changes in the element to propagate to e.g. the proposal it is in.
