Nil should not require validity

Section 4.3.3. of the Data Model draft states:

     If the [validity] property exists and is "valid" and the 
[attributes] property contains an attribute with the local-name "nil" 
and the namespace URI "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance", 
then "true", otherwise "false".

I do not see why validity should be required for an element to be 
nil. The mere presence of the xsi:nil="true" attribute should be 
sufficient. Or just maybe it should also be required that the element 
be empty. However, there's no reason it needs to be valid. I have 
profitably used xsi:nil in documents without any schema or DTD.

I suggest deleting the phrase "the [validity] property exists and is 
"valid" and "
-- 

   Elliotte Rusty Harold
   elharo@metalab.unc.edu
   Processing XML with Java (Addison-Wesley, 2002)
   http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xmljava
   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0201771861/cafeaulaitA

Received on Friday, 9 May 2003 10:05:35 UTC