proposed resolution for issue #18 - "top level" unclear

 Hello. 8-)
 As a resolution to issue #18 [2] the ETF proposes that the
Encoding allows inline (embedded) serialization of references.
 Also, as part of this resolution, all mentions of "top level"
should be removed, which also means removing all mentions of
"independent elements". In some places just removing the
appropriate part of the text is sufficient, in some places some
rephrasing may be necessary, please see the attached file for my
proposal on the changes (red striked is to be removed, green
close-by is to be added).
 This change will not disallow "independent elements". We might
also want to explicitly say that the elements can be serialized
just about anywhere (according to all other rules, of course),
that they SHOULD or MUST be marked with root="false" and that
they SHOULD be serialized in-line.
 If we decide for the MUST two lines above, this would be the
only backward incompatible change, although I agree that to
implement the SHOULDs there will have to be some changes in
current implementations.

 Other issues related to multirefs (and identified in [1]) will
soon be added to the issues list as they are orthogonal to this
change.

 Best regards,

                   Jacek Kopecky

                   Senior Architect, Systinet (formerly Idoox)
                   http://www.systinet.com/

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-dist-app/2001Oct/0231.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/xmlp-issues.html#x18