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NDR rule on namespace's version precedence over explicit version attribute's value

  • 1.  NDR rule on namespace's version precedence over explicit version attribute's value

    Posted 10-02-2003 09:49
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    Subject: NDR rule on namespace's version precedence over explicit version attribute's value


    >>It was agreed yesterday 
    >>by a well attended NDR meeting that there was sufficient reason 
    >>in this to make it a MUST for UBL (it was nearly a MAY but that
    >>left room for inconsistency and uncertainty about use) on the 
    >>proviso (from Eduardo) that the namespace was still acknowledged
    >>(perhaps for historic reasons - i.e. respect to previous discussions)
    >>as the first normative mechanism....
    
    Using namespace holders to record version isn't really the
    proper way to start off.  Namespace values are dependent on
    version, not the other way around.  In other words, given an
    arbitrary namespace value (e.g. XSD's value), we cannot tell
    what is the version number.  But the other way around, given
    a version, we *can* construct (with other input variables)
    the actual namespace value.  In current UBL's namespace
    construction, it so happens that delimiters were amply used
    to separate the positional holders so that one could backward
    derive the version value.  Processing-wise, it does appear
    like EDI-sort of processing to fish for the version value
    in a colon-delimited string message.
    
    I don't really like the idea of obtaining a version from 
    namespace holders whose values themselves are dependent on
    version.
    
    If special schema processors are able to pick out version
    value from namespace (call this VER1), AND then compare 
    with the version value from the <xsd:schema version> attribute
    (call this VER2), and finds that  VER1 not equal to VER2,
    all that can be safely concluded is that the schema is 
    not self-consistent.   One cannot say that VER1 is "more
    accurate" than VER2.  One cannot say that VER1 has higher
    precedence because VER1 and VER2 do not have any ordering
    relation.  The schema processor should stop using that
    schema and possibly flag an error to end-user.
    
    It is not a good idea to encourage application-defined
    defaults to handle such inconsistencies.
    
    The NDR rule pertaining to this should therefore be
    to state that schema validators and applications 
    MUST NOT continue further processing if VER1 <> VER2.
    
    
    
    
    
    Best Regards,
    Chin Chee-Kai
    SoftML
    Tel: +65-6820-2979
    Fax: +65-6743-7875
    Email: cheekai@SoftML.Net
    http://SoftML.Net/
    
    
    


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