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Re: Compact syntax for XML Schema

• To: "John Cowan" <jcowan@r...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: Compact syntax for XML Schema
• From: "Bob Foster" <bob@o...>
• Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 22:01:38 -0500
• References: <20030909211555.GC7910@s...>

From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@r...>
> Erik Wilde and Kilian Stillhard have developed a compact syntax for W3C
XML
> Schema, analogous to the compact syntax for RELAX NG.  It's very
attractive
> IMHO, and comes with Java code to translate back and forth to the
XML-based
> standard syntax.  Unfortunately, it was announced during the August
doldrums,
> and doesn't seem to have made it to the list.  While I have a few trivial
> complaints about the syntax (meaning: it didn't *quite* match the sketch I
> worked out last year :-) ), it looks like an excellent method of making
WXS
> more readable, writable, and accessible.
>
> Home page: http://dret.net/projects/xscs/

At first glance this seems a pleasant syntax and might be very useful, but
it has two unfortunate problems:

2. Is there a specification? I know there's a published syntax in a March
tech report (http://dret.net/netdret/docs/wilde-tikrep166.pdf), but there is
no way to tell if this corresponds to the August implementation or is
intended to.

1. Inability to round-trip. Too bad they didn't borrow a bit more from RELAX
NG compact syntax, like the ability to specify foreign attributes and
elements, so, e.g., the syntax could be used with Schematron annotations.
Even some attributes from the same namespace seem to be lost, like the
ubiquitous id attribute in the schema-for-schemas. It would be one thing if
round-tripping only changed the expression of the same information, like
moving namespace declarations to the top level, but actually losing
information is a tough sell.

Bob Foster

• References:
  • Compact syntax for XML Schema
    • From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>

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