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Re: modeling, validating and documenting an xml grammar

• To: "Rich Salz" <rsalz@d...>,"Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@c...>
• Subject: Re: modeling, validating and documenting an xml grammar
• From: "Bob Foster" <bob@o...>
• Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 22:05:48 -0500
• Cc: <xml-dev@l...>
• References: <Pine.LNX.4.44L0.0306182035290.809-100000@s...>

From: "Rich Salz" <rsalz@d...>
> I am in awe of the hubris of folks who can make such generalizations.
>
> "Trust me, if you try to strictly define your data, then your software
> will [expletive deleted]."
>
> Wow.
>
> Perhaps folks really mean "this is the final straw, making XSD so
> complex that as validation-implementors we cannot stand for it."
> But that is not what they've been saying.

"You don't need to do that," isn't winning you over? ;-}

Going back over the RELAX NG archives, the recorded discussion of
minOccurs/maxOccurs was focused on requirements, not implementation. The
committee apparently couldn't make a strong case for the feature, and "if in
doubt, leave it out" carried the day. Here is a constructive paraphrase:

1) ? * and + meet most needs.

2) When {m,n} is used for other than {0,1}, {1,1}, {0,*} and {1,*}, most
often the numbers are low (as witness most of the examples in this thread)
and the pattern can be easily written out in terms of ? * and +. E.g.,
x{2,3} = x,x,x?.

3) If the need for a large, finite bound arises, it can be satisfied by
adding a Schematron assertion to a RELAX NG schema.

Bob Foster

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    • From: Rich Salz <rsalz@d...>

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