RE: Using NMTOKEN

"There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

-- Ed Crowley

What is the justification for making a change?

NMTOKEN is a bizarre data type, but if it works, and if things are going to seriously break if you change, then it’s hard to see why you would want to change it.

You might be able to avoid compatibility issues by deriving your new type from NMTOKEN. But that depends on what those issues are.

Michael Kay

Saxonica

On 18 Jun 2015, at 14:56, Toby Considine <Toby.Considine@gmail.com> wrote:

 

I am currently nearing the end of a refresh cycle of a standard Schema (XSD) that has long used NMTOKEN. Systems using the specification are widely deployed in the world, so backward compatibility is highly desirable.

 

At the last moment, one commenter has thrown up the notion that NMTOKEN should no longer use NMTOKEN, but add specific facets instead. The rest of the specification currently makes no use of facets anywhere else.

 

Should we make this change? The new version, like the old, is likely to last another 10 years.

 

tc

 

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“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

– George Bernard Shaw.

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Toby Considine TC9, Inc. Toby.Considine@gmail.com Phone: (919)619-2104 http://www.tc9.com

Chair, OASIS OBIX Technical Committee Chair, OASIS WS-Calendar Technical Committee Editor, OASIS Energy Market Information Exchange (EMIX) Editor, OASIS Energy Interoperation blog: http://www.NewDaedalus.com