[XSLT2.0] XML Schema WG Comment 1/2

Dear colleagues,

We thank you for incorporating our comments on your previous draft into
your latest draft (2003-11-12).  This batch of comments pertains to the
2003-11-12 XSLT 2.0 Working Draft.

COMMENT 1 of 2 : XMLSchema-datatypes namespace URI

In section 3.2 "Reserved Namespaces", the XMLSchema-datatypes URI is
listed with the following comment:

      [Definition: The schema datatypes namespace
      http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-datatypes is used as defined
      in [XML Schema]]. In a stylesheet this namespace may be used to
      refer to built-in schema datatypes and to the constructor functions
      associated with those datatypes: in these respects it is equivalent
      to the schema namespace.

Please note that the Schema WG has an open issue, R-222 [1], on the
topic of the alternate datatypes namespace, which we consider to be
problematic. We have not reached consensus among the following options:

    - declare the types in the datatypes namespace as a magic aliases,
      violating the principle of at most one name per component
    - define the types in the datatypes namespace as vacuous restrictions
      of the corresponding types in the schema namespace, which means,
      for instance, that xdt:integer is not derived from xdt:decimal
    - deprecate the datatypes namespace

We apologize for this issue being unresolved; that being the state, the
safest course of action would be for XSLT to avoid using the datatypes
namespace.

Xan Gregg, on behalf of the XML Schema Working Group

[1] XML Schema Issues List (version with R-222 not yet published to web 
site)
http://www.w3.org/2001/05/xmlschema-rec-comments

Received on Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:57:30 UTC