Input Inconsistency

In writing the XML Schema for what we decided I found one input
inconsistency that just bothers me.  There are two cases where
I think we have this inconsistency that I'll enumerate below.

1. Calculated pipeline inputs:

    We can now "calculate" a pipeline input by declaring
    another input that references a pipeline input and then
    uses a select to get a sequence of documents:

    <pipe name="ex1" ...>
       <declare-input port="main"/>
       <declare-input port="calculated" ref="ex1!main" select="//chap"/>
    </pipe>

2. for-each/viewport/etc. :

    <for-each name="iteration">
       <declare-input port="chap" ref="somestep!output" select="//chap"/>
    </for-each>

These are the only inconsistency we have with declare-input so far.  In
all other cases, declare-input just declares a name of a port available
for binding.

I suggest we make these what they are and just call them 'input'.  We
can continue to have declare-input for the current variety where only
the name needs to be declared.

In the above examples, we'd have:


1. Calculated pipeline inputs:

    <pipe name="ex1" ...>
       <declare-input port="main"/>
       <input port="calculated" ref="ex1!main" select="//chap"/>
    </pipe>

    Now the input is a calculated "input".

2. for-each/viewport/etc. :

    <for-each name="iteration">
       <input port="chap" ref="somestep!output" select="//chap"/>
    </for-each>

    Here the interpretation would be we're calculating the input for
    the iteration based on the ref and select attributes.


If we choose to collapse the 'declare-input' and 'input' names, we'll
still need to distinguish between declarations of input names
that need to be bound to some input and calculated inputs that are
calculated against some existing available document.


-- 
--Alex Milowski

Received on Sunday, 6 August 2006 19:58:59 UTC