Re: XML Schema datatypes

As far as I am aware, xsd:integer and the mathematical set Z have no 
important divergences i.e. there is no gain in supporting both.

string is somewhat harder - notionally it does correspond to the 
mathematical set of finite sequences of unicode code points.

however, to some extent the set of unicode code points is a moving 
target; and there is always the danger that some specific code point has 
some semantics that makes some applications treat a particular string 
differently, .... and this is further complicated by user expectations 
which are more couched around the displayed format of the string, rather 
than the mathematical sequence. Since two or more sequences can 
correspond to identical displayed formats this is an area of concern.

As far as I recall, none of the other datatypes have anything 
approaching a rigorous mathematical analog.

Jeremy

Received on Friday, 16 November 2007 12:16:40 UTC