How are default profiles normatively established?

I can't quite tell what the model for default profiles is.

Is it essentially a normative external profile document that is in  
effect for the entire document tree?

Or is it essentially a set of mappings that are normatively defined in  
the host language's specification document, and SHOULD also be  
available in an informative profile document, purely for consistency?

Sections 7.5 makes it sound like the former, 7.2 makes it sound like  
the latter.

This matters for a few corner cases:

- What happens if the default profile document is unavailable due to  
server outage?

- Is the default profile in effect while processing *another profile  
document*?

I submit that the confusion has two sources:

1. The terms “RDFa Profile” and “RDFa Profile Document” are used  
interchangeably, making it unclear what a “Default RDFa Profile” is.  
(My intuition is that a profile is an abstract data structure, while a  
profile document is a way of establishing a profile.)

2. The section that explains RDFa Profile Documents does not explain  
how these documents relate to default profiles. (I think it should  
state that host languages SHOULD provide a profile document for their  
default profile, but that the profile document is never used in  
parsing.)

Best,
Richard

Received on Monday, 23 August 2010 12:08:55 UTC