What is the canonical lexical representation of duration?

Hi,

What is the canonical lexical representation of duration?, and how do I get 
there from any other lexical representation.  I ask because I am trying to 
understand the XQuery yearMonthDuration and dayTimeDuration types.  Those 
two types have a canonical form that converts, for example, P1Y to 
P12M.  So, there is only one value in the value space that equals this 
amount of time.  This makes sense, but it is not the way I thought the XML 
Schema types worked.  Are the duration values P1Y and P12M considered to be 
the same value?

If so, how do I know which one is the canonical form?  The rec doesn't say 
anything about this.

If not, isn't the XQuery spec in direct violation of the XML Schema spec 
for converging values in the value space?

This question aside, there is also the minor point of other different 
lexical representations (e.g. leading zeros in the number values, trailing 
zeros in the number of seconds) that would also need to be clarified when 
deciding on the canonical representation for duration.

Thanks,

John Mercado



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