XSchema Progress and Strategy (I)

[Simon St.Laurent]

Hello again - I'm afraid that moving and then driving an extra 700 miles wiped 
me out considerably more than I expected, which is why this has been an 
extremely quiet week with regard to XSchema.  More is certainly on the way; my 
head is clearing and I no longer see road markings flying past when I close my 
eyes.

We have some extremely large issues to deal with, primarily on the nested vs. 
rule-based debate.  The spec as it is written now uses nested structures to 
represent XSchemas.  Paul Prescod and Peter Murray-Rust have both suggested 
the use of rule-based syntax much like that used by XSL.  This has three 
significant advantages in my mind:
1) Developers can reuse the structures they're creating for XSL.
2) Authors don't need to relearn the wheel when approaching XSL or XSchema.
3) The rule-based syntax seems easier to extend.

The disadvantages as I see them are:
1) The current spec and its outline will need significant revision and 
reorganization.
2) I suspect the rule-based systems are a bit less intuitive than nested 
structures for beginners.
3) We have no proposed DTD for a rule-based system.
4) We have until June 30 to finish this spec.

I have time this week (finally) to address these issues, if people feel they 
are worthwhile.  Otherwise, I'll keep working on the spec as it stands.

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


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