order relationship of "year"

Dear XML Schema WG members,


I think the spec is obscure about order relation of "year" type.

In section 3.2.11, the spec says

> If year values are considered as periods of time, the order relation on
> year values is the order relation on their starting instants. 

But I couldn't understand what this "if" means. What happens if year
values are considered otherwise?

Why it cannot be just

> the order relation on
> year values is the order relation on their starting instants. 



regards,
----------------------
K.Kawaguchi
E-Mail: k-kawa@bigfoot.com