One reflection on the DTD/Relax/W3C Schema debate: We seem to be assuming that we will need to perform an automated (and probably imperfect) transformation from a normative syntax into others that people may want to use in their own implementations. We could, of course, use any notation we like for the normative expression of the specification, so long as it unambiguously defines the XML structures in the open office format. We could then publish implementations as DTD/Relax/W3C Schema,etc with comments where necessary on how each syntax does (or does not) support what we have defined. As far as I can see there is no necessity to define an automated transformation from our specification to any given format. Our problem is (almost) the same one that has been faced by activities such as UBL and HL7 (for those of you interested in a far bigger manifestation of the problem in the healthcare domain). The problem is that XML schema languages (I think all of them, but I someone may want to correct me) are not rich enough to specify the logical information models required in those specifications. The only thing that we definitely need to do is make sure our specification is complete and unambiguous in itself. We can then add examples of syntax-specific implementations to help people implement their own applications, but these aren't normative and (almost certainly) won't be generated 100% automtically from the specification itself. Regards, John *********************************************** CSW Group Ltd 4240 Nash Court Oxford Business Park South Oxford OX4 2RU Tel: +44/0 1865 337400 Fax: +44/0 1865 337433 Web:
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