- From: Ralph R. Swick <swick@w3.org>
- Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 16:36:56 -0400
- To: w3c-ietf-xmldsig@w3.org
In a similar vein to the question Joseph asked regarding the XML declaration in a document... While re-reading the XML XLink Requirements http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/NOTE-xlink-req-19990224 I was struck by the statement B.2: "It must be possible to apply XML link semantics to existing documents by modifying the documents' DTDs only, requiring no modification to the document instances themselves. For example by supplying appropriate information in an element's definition (in the DTD), such as a default ROLE attribute. This provides for layering of XML link semantics onto large bodies of XML documents without requiring modification of those documents." The specific point at issue here is whether changes to a document's "defining document"; i.e. today its XML DTD, tomorrow its XML Schema, can alter the interpretation of a document. If changes can alter the intended application interpretation, then the signature process must explicitly account for this in some manner. One could certainly include this case in the generalization to any object that is external to the signed document but I suspect that the DTD or XML Schema is sufficiently important to warrant explicit treatment in the signature specification.
Received on Wednesday, 23 June 1999 16:38:34 UTC