[Bug 3725] Editorial: 'context-determined declarations' needs work

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=3725

           Summary: Editorial: 'context-determined declarations' needs work
           Product: XML Schema
           Version: 1.0/1.1 both
          Platform: Macintosh
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Structures: XSD Part 1
        AssignedTo: cmsmcq@w3.org
        ReportedBy: cmsmcq@w3.org
         QAContact: www-xml-schema-comments@w3.org


During validation, elements in instances are bound to element
declarations either because the user indicated that that should
happen, when calling for validation, or because the context
(both the document context and the validation context, and
their interplay) determined a declaration to which the element
should be bound.  Among the latter, some bindings are direct
(the expanded name in the content model matches the expanded
name on the element), and others are indirect (substitutable
elements, elements matching wildcards).

Ditto for attributes.

The term 'context-determined declaration' seems a natural one
to use for those declarations which are determined by context, 
as opposed to being determined by the caller.  But there are
two problems.

First, not every declaration determined by context is a
context-determined declaration as that term is defined in
1.0 and in the 1.1 status quo.  Declarations which match directly,
or indirectly via element substitution, are context-determined
declarations; declarations found via QName resolution, when an
item matches a wildcard, are not.

Second, and more serious, not every context-determined
declaration is a declaration.  Some of them are keywords
('mustFind', 'skip').  Note that the three-way distinction
among strict, skip, and lax wildcards is formalized by
a distinction among the context-determined declaration
'mustFind', the context-determined declaration 'skip', and
no context-determined declaration at all.  

Either a rationale for the current usage should be 
enunciated (whether recovered from memory or manufactured
from whole cloth) and documented in the spec, to make it
easier for readers, or else the usage should be rationalized.
One good step would be to stop using a term whose head
noun is 'declaration' to denote things which are not
declarations.

Received on Thursday, 14 September 2006 01:48:57 UTC