Re: defn "string" across XML infoset/query/schema, I18N specs

Dan,

Is this the kind of definition you had in mind?
   http://www.w3.org/International/Group/2001/01/charmod-20010110/#sec-Strings

Misha


On 03/01/2001 17:41:54 Dan Connolly wrote:
> We were just discussing the infoset spec, and the
> lack of a definition of the term "string" there.
>
> In my head, a string is a finite sequence of
> unicode (UCS) characters. I suggested we say
> that in the infoset spec. It occurred
> to me that we should be consistent with the I18N
> character model, and that there should
> be some words that we can cite/steal...
>
> I don't see any clear mathematical specification
> of the term "string" in the spec.
>
> 4.3 String Identity Matching
> http://www.w3.org/TR/charmod/#IdentityMatching
> http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-charmod-19990225#IdentityMatching
>
> Some text that looks relevant, though sorta garbled is:
>
>    "Level 2: Indexing based on abstract codepoints
>              UCS codepoints should be chosen, in accordance
>              with Production [2] of [XML 1.0], the SGML
>              declaration of [HTML 4.0], and the character model
>              of [RFC 2070]. This is the highest level of
>              abstraction that ensures interoperability. To avoid
>              problems with duplicates, it is assumed that the
>              data is normalized according to Section 3.2. "
>    -- http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-charmod-19990225#Indexing
>
> By "string" I mean a finite sequence of those things... the abstract
> things... it should be clear that these are characters, not
> (necessarily) identical to the integer codepoints to which they
> correspond.
>
> I wonder if a formal model would clarify. I started working on one a
> while back:
>
>    http://www.w3.org/Architecture/theory/Character.lsl
>    Mon, 15 Jan 1996 19:34:44 GMT
>
> but I haven't integrated it into my somewhat more recent, but still out
> of date stuff:
>
>    http://www.w3.org/XML/9711theory/XMLElement.
>    http://www.w3.org/XML/9711theory/XMLElement.lsl
>    http://www.w3.org/XML/9711theory/XMLElement.html
>    $Id: XMLElement.lsl,v 1.9 2000/01/17 21:33:41 connolly Exp $
>
> Meanwhile, the term "Character" is grounded in the web at:
>
>    http://www.w3.org/XML/2000/12/infoset-20001211#Character
>
> but in the parts of that RDF schema where one would expect
> to find #String, one finds just:
>
>    http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Literal
>
> which is not constrained to be a sequence of characters;
> RDF literals can include markup etc.
>
> Hmm... I suspect the Query data model spec has a specification
> for character and string, but I haven't looked. So let's look...
> http://www.w3.org/TR/query-datamodel/
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-query-datamodel-20000511/
> ah... it takes its definition of string from the schema spec...
> of course, I should have thought of that...
>
> Ah yes, this text will do nicely:
>
> [[[
> 3.2.1 string
>
>         [Definition:]  The string datatype represents character
>         strings in XML. The value space of string is the set of
>         finite-length sequences of characters (as defined in [XML
>         1.0 Recommendation (Second Edition)]) that match the
>         Char production from [XML 1.0 Recommendation
>         (Second Edition)]. A character is an atomic unit of
>         communication; it is not further specified except to note
>         that every character has a corresponding Universal Code
>         Set code point ([ISO 10646], [Unicode] and [Unicode3]),
>         which is an integer.
>
>              NOTE: As noted in Order (§2.4.1.2), the fact
>              that this specification does not specify an
>              order-relation for string does not preclude
>              other applications from treating strings as
>              being ordered.
> ]]]
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-xmlschema-2-20001024/#string
>
> Hm... I'm surprised by the restrictive clause
> "that match the Char production..."; do we really
> mean to exclude strings including the 0th character
> or the 1st character (ala CTRL-A) from XML strings?
> I guess so. Well, I learn something new every day.
>
> So the term "string" in the infoset spec refers to an
> item in the value space of the string datatype.
>
> Er... of course, the dependency should go the other way:
> the schema spec should import its definition of "string"
> from the character model spec, either directly, or
> indirectly, thru the infoset spec. The infoset spec
> should import its definition from the character model spec.
>
> Hmm... I'm not sure if scheduling that dependency is
> manageable, but that's how it *should* work, in theory.
>
> Hmm... the term string seems to have a home in the web...
> no, those hyperlinked "StringValue" terms refer to
>
> section 3.8 Values
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-query-datamodel-20000511/#valueNode
>
>
> [Hmm... it would be great to "Webize" the notation used
> in the query data model spec
> http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Webize.html
>
> I suspect the result would be what we're after for the Semantic Web...
>    http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html
>    http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Logic.html
>    http://www.w3.org/2000/01/sw/
>
> But I should send that request in a separate message...
> ]
>
>
> --
> Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/
>


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Received on Tuesday, 16 January 2001 14:34:39 UTC