XSD: Proposed Goals, Rev. 1

[Alain DESEINE]

Simon St.Laurent wrote:
> 
> A revised set of goals for XSD follows, based on Peter's public comments and
> the private comments of two other participants.  These are still open to
> change until Friday.
> 
> Per previous usage, XSD (Extensible or XML Structure Definitions) refers to
> the standard under construction. SDD (Structure Definition Document) refers to
> the schema/XMLDTD/etc. created using that standard.  (Better definitions are
> on the list of things to come very shortly.)
> 
> 1. SDDs shall use XML document syntax.
> 
> 2. SDDs shall be transformable into an XML 1.0 DTD containing the same element
> and attribute structures.
> 
> 3. SDDs shall be capable of representing the normalized element and attribute
> structures defined in XML 1.0 DTDs.
> 
> 4. SDDs shall be parseable, manageable, and manipulable using the same tools
> used to parse, manage, and manipulate XML documents.
> 
> 5. SDDs shall be easy to create, modify, and document.
> 
> 6. SDDs shall be easy to use in combination with a parser to provide
> structural validation of documents.
> 
> 7. XSD shall include an XML 1.0 DTD defining the structure of SDDs.
> 
> 8. XSD shall suggest mechanisms for applying SDDs to documents.
> 
> 9. XSD shall include mechanisms for extending the information included in
> SDDs.
> 
> 10. The XSD specification shall be readable and clear, using terminology and
> nomenclature as close to the XML 1.0 specification as possible.
> 
> 11. The XSD specification will comply with and be consistent with W3C
> recommendations regarding XML.
> 
> --------------------
> 
> 11 is new, and hopes to address both XSD's relationship with other parts of
> the XML standard (and XML-related standards) and XSD's relationship with the
> W3C.
> 
> This is a slightly-improved _start_.  Changes to language, meaning, order,
> terminology, etc. are
> all welcome, as are additions.
> 

I propose that XSD shall implement a simple METADATA mechanism. This can
be very usefull for implementors who need to store some informations
about Elements and/or attribute that are not especially interesting for
other implementors. Let me take an example. Currently i'm developping an
application wich is a DTD GENERATOR. This application can work with
another one which is an XML EDITOR. To improve the XML EDITOR ergonomy
against all DTD's i'm asking some more information in the DTD GENERATOR
application (Description of element, A toolbar name, a Hint name, and a
path to an icon representative of the element). For now, i'm storing
these informations in an additionnal INI file !!! I think it will be
valuable to include a METADATA mechanism to store this kind of
informations.

Comment an addition are welcome.

Alain.

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