CR-37 Response: Change the namespace defaults in DTD for Schemas?

Dear Curt,

The W3C XML Schema Working Group has spent the last several weeks
working through the comments received from the public on the
Candidate Recommendation (CR) of the XML Schema specification. We
thank you for the comments you made on our specification during
our CR comment period, and want to make sure you know that all
comments received during the CR comment period have been recorded
in our CR issues list (http://www.w3.org/2000/12/xmlschema-crcomments.html).

You raised the point registered as issue CR-37:

Title: Change the namespace defaults in DTD for Schemas?

In particular, you suggested

1) set the parameter entities 'p' and 's' to 'xsd:' and ':xsd',
respectively, so that without redefining them in an internal subset, a
schema using this prefix can be validated against this DTD.

2) add some namespace declarations in the schema element as placeholders so
that a schema can use these attributes (ns declarations) without redefining
PE schemaAttrs.

Resolution:
The Working Group agreed to classify this issue as an editorial question
and not to make changes.

It is certainly convenient to have a prefix, but it is not clear if making
this prefix to have default value 'xsd' will bring any significant
benefits.  For those schemas that happen to use this xsd prefix will
benefit, but for others, one still needs to redefine it in an internal
subset. Similarly, adding some placeholders for namespace declarations may
be convenient for some schemas, but it is not clear what proportion of
schemas will benefit with such arbitrarily chosen placeholders.  It is
important to note that the DTD for Schema already provides a mechanism to
let the schema author redefine this namespace prefix and also add necessary
namespace declarations using an internal subset.  The Working Group
considers this solution to be general and adequate for most schema authors.

It would be helpful to us to know whether you are satisfied with the
decision taken by the WG on this issue, or wish your dissent from the
WG's decision to be recorded for consideration by the Director of
the W3C.

Regards

Aki Yoshida
XML Schema Working Group

Received on Wednesday, 14 February 2001 06:56:26 UTC