more profile confusion

The more I ponder our open issues with profiles, the more questions I have.

 

I've always been a bit unclear about whether the profile applies to the
document or to the processor.  Relevant I think is the 6.1.1 text: ".its
purpose is to express authorial intentions about which features and
extensions must or may be supported by a recipient content processor. In
addition, the element indirectly expresses information about the set of
features or extensions that are (or may expected to be) used by the document
instance"

 

The above seems to indicate that the profile is a set of metadata delivered
(possibly in the document instance) to a processor to indicate which
features are required to properly operate on the document instance.  It does
not appear to be a means to define a document profile, yet many users have
interpreted it that way.  As a set of processor metadata, it then makes
sense that there is no "forbidden" value or a definition of what it means to
have omitted features.

 

Minimally this needs to be clarified. If we decide we want to also make it a
means to define formal document profiles, then I don't think it is a rich
enough expression - XML schema or RelaxNG is really needed, which would then
obviate the need for such a parallel (and possibly conflicting) feature
description.

 

Either way, I am also confused about the practice of including various
features concurrently - both in the Recommendation and as used by 3rd
parties. I don't know what it means to include:

 

1.            Both (for example): #backgroundColor and
#backgroundColor-block; or

2.            All of (for example): #backgroundColor,
#backgroundColor-block, #backgroundColor-inline, and
#backgroundColor-region; or

3.            Both (for example):  #presentation and #core.

 

In #1, doesn't #backgroundColor sweep in all semantics and placement?  If
so, what does it mean to add the more restricted one? And if
#backgroundColor does not include all semantics and placement, what is
excluded? (This is just an example and the same question can be asked of all
the #[feature]-[subset] constructions.)

 

In #2, all the subset constructions are specified. How is this different
from simply #backgroundColor?

 

In #3, #core is included in #presentation, so isn't #presentation adequate?

 

Regards,

 

                Mike

 

Michael A DOLAN

Television Broadcast Technology, Inc

PO Box 190, Del Mar, CA 92014 USA

+1-858-882-7497 (m)