XForms WD 20011207 - document architecture

4.3.1. model states:

"Element model is used as a container for other XForms elements, embedded 
in the head section of other document types such as XHTML. ...."

Also while not spelt out in the spec, it is implied that the form controls 
themselves are embedded in an element called "body" in the document.

What's wrong with this is that the spec is imposing a head/body structure on

the document.  That's fine for HTML/XHTML but that's not find for XML 
documents in the general case.  Who says that a valid and well-formed 
XML document must adhere to a head/body pattern?  The XML spec 
certainly does not.  Therefore in constructing a consistent set of standards

in which XForms should fit in with XML, the XForms spec should not 
impose such structure on the document itself and there needs to be 
a general purpose XML-ish way of associating the xforms controls 
with the xforms model element.

Actually I which every XML document did have a head/body structure and 
that would make life easier for everyone.  However XSL documents 
(eg. the W3C XMLspec.xsl) do not have head/body elements.  There
may be some valid reason for wanting to use XForms in an XSL 
document such as in a web authoring application and such forethought 
should be considered in the XForms spec.

Justin Johansson
Software Engineer,
BAE SYSTEMS
PO Box 1068
Salisbury, 
South Australia  5108
Ph:     +61 8 8480 7564
Email: justin.johansson@baesystems.com

Received on Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:29:12 UTC