XSchema: multiple proposals

[Simon St.Laurent]

Peter Murray-Rust wrote:
>Reading the proposals and the discussion on them today I felt that
>things were coming together well. Although there is a spectrum of opinion
>there seem to be no major ideological gulfs.

So far, we've pretty much avoided ideological gulfs.  The two proposals (from 
John Cowan and Ron Bourret) are different, but I think we have the parts to 
define the basic structures, and then move on to other issues including the 
documentation features and other goodies.  I'm very pleased by both drafts, 
and think we have a rich set of material to work with.

>As always it's a dichotomy
>between simplicity and functionality. My personal touchstone would be that
>- at present - a newcomer to XML who has read the XML 1.0 spec and the
>namespace spec would have a reasonable chance of understanding our
>proposal. The closer that we map onto them, the easier it will be.

That's my aim - and I'd like to make sure that they don't have to flip back 
and forth constantly among all the specs.  This probably means a lot of work 
for me, but that's fine.  I'm used to writing tutorials and manuals, so it's 
normal for me.

>Have I got the process right, Simon - two (or more) drafts
>will be published and then you will ask questions which may use material
>from the drafts.

This is almost exactly right.  I'll be building an initial XSchema 
specification using material from these two drafts (and others that may be 
submitted), taking into account the discussions surrounding them on the list.  
Tomorrow I'll be taking a line-by-line look at the two drafts to compile a 
list of more detailed questions.  

*Content models appear to be the current zone of most contention.*

As the discussion evolves, the specification will go through multiple numbered 
drafts.  All released versions of the spec will remain available on the 
XSchema site (http://purl.oclc.org/NET/xschema) for reference.

I'll have an outline for the specification up tomorrow sometime, to 
double-check that I haven't forgotten any critical portions.  Also, if there 
are portions of the spec that people would like to 'adopt,' I'm open to 
collaborating, though I'll keep some editorial control over the spec as a 
whole.  We can work this out after the outline settles.  (Contact me privately 
if you're interested.)

Thanks to _everyone_ for their participation.  I am keeping a list of everyone 
who's joined the fun, and there will certainly be an _enormous_ 
acknowledgments on this one.

Simon St.Laurent
Dynamic HTML: A Primer / XML: A Primer / Cookies


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