XSchema current status

[Simon St.Laurent]

I hope to provide a status report on XSchema every Monday morning, summarizing 
the current position of the specification's development.  Please don't reply 
to this status report; please reply to threads regarding specific questions.

We have four questions in current circulation:

1)How will XSchema use/relate to RDF? 
(thread Re: XSchema Question 1: RDF)

We need an answer to this question so we can move into building XSchema 
syntax. 

So far, it sounds like people would like to be able to use RDF, but that RDF 
itself probably isn't mature (or well-documented) enough to use as the 
foundation of XSchema.  I'll leave this open for a few more days, as I know 
some of the proponents of RDF are still developing suggestions.


2)How will XSchema use namespaces? 
(thread Re: XSchema Question 2: Namespaces)

It sounds like we'll have to pick out a namespace for use in XSchemas. How 
XSchema namespaces will end up interacting with other namespaces remains an 
open question.


3)Should XSchema provide internal and external subsets, as do XML DTD's?
(thread Re: XSchema Question 3: Internal/External subsets)

This question has picked up some interesting life under the "Re: Entities and 
namespaces in XSchemata" thread.  The consensus in the few messages directed 
at the question seems to be that XSchema shouldn't support internal/external 
in the _same_ manner as DTDs, and I suspect for 1.0 we'll assume a single 
unified XSchema.  At the same time, we need to keep the doors open for the 
(exciting, even amazing) possibilities for the future that people are 
developing in this discussion.


4)Should the use of traditional DTD entity (and other) notation be encouraged 
in the design, development, and use of XSchemas?
(thread Re: XSchema Question 4: XML 1.0/XSchema interactions)

Not a lot of interest on this one.  I think the XSchema specification itself 
will remain silent on this issue, though a separate note might point out uses 
of XML 1.0 tools like general entities.

---------------

There are also a number of discussions going on about fragmented and compound 
documents, declarations and definitions, and the nature of schemata, mostly on 
the "Re:What are schemata" thread.  I'll be building these into specific 
questions shortly.

These are my interpretations of what I've heard.  Please contact me (or the 
list) if you think I've heard wrong.

I'll be posting these status reports on the XSchema web site 
(http://purl.oclc.org/NET/xschema) as a log of where we've been.

Simon St.Laurent
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