Some portions of the specification treat XForms like a standalone document type

The Abstract for XForms 1.0 says:

"XForms is not a free-standing document type, but is intended to be
integrated into other markup languages, such as XHTML."

However, some parts of the specification still read as if XForms _is_ a
standalone document type. The Working Group should consider simplifying the
specification:

* Does the conformance section really make sense? Would it be better to have
a conformance section along the lines of XPath (another 'building block'
specification):

<quote>
XPath is intended primarily as a component that can be used by other
specifications. Therefore, XPath relies on specifications that use XPath
(such as [XPointer] and [XSLT]) to specify criteria for conformance of
implementations of XPath and does not define any conformance criteria for
independent implementations of XPath.
</quote>

* Along the same lines, are "XForms Basic" and "XForms Full" really
"conformance profiles", or actually "modules"?

* Does the linkage between XForms and a particular transport (such as HTTP
GET, PUT, & POST) really make sense? Or should the XForms specification
'exist in a vacuum', with specific bindings occurring at the level of
specific document profiles (XHTML+XForms, etc.)

* Do the extensibility measures in XForms consistently reflect the status of
XForms as a building-block spec?

I request that the XForms Working Group begin the effort of defining an
XHTML+XForms document profile. Going though this will help identify and
clarify all the interface points between XForms and the rest of the world.

This effort is in distinct from any XForms-as-part-of-XHTML-2.0 work that is
underway, though much re-use is likely possible.

Thanks,

.micah

Received on Friday, 22 February 2002 18:26:31 UTC