Re: No Standard way to reference XML Schema? Was Re: (Many) XML Schema Questions

On Thu, 30 Dec 1999, Roger L. Costello wrote:

> I read these statements as saying that there is no standard way for
> specifying in an XML document what XML Schema it conforms to - every
> XML Parser will have its own way of doing things.  Really???  If
> this is so, please, please tell me why this is a good thing.  I am
> struggling to appreciate its beauty.  /Roger

I am as puzzled as you are.  Yes, it's true, as Andrew writes, that
"ultimately, the processor of a document determines what processing is
done" [cited as the rationale for the decision by the XML Schemas WG to
demote the xsi:schemaLocation attribute to a "hint"].  The same could be
said of any software, which behaves in direct response to the
instructions written by its creators, rather than the prescriptions of
standards.  The role of a standard is to assist in the processes of
predicting how software which claims conformance to it will behave, and
of determining which products are actually conformant.

-- 
Bob Kline
mailto:bkline@rksystems.com
http://www.rksystems.com