RE: Schema Modularisation in XForms (Was: xslt stylesheet for xforms to xhtml)

-----Original Message-----
From: AndrewWatt2001@aol.com [mailto:AndrewWatt2001@aol.com]
Sent: 02 September 2002 14:58
To: Mark Seaborne; xforms@yahoogroups.com; www-forms@w3.org; www-forms-editor@w3.org
Subject: Schema Modularisation in XForms (Was: xslt stylesheet for xforms to xhtml)


>It seems to me that it would be very useful to have modularisation of schema (the generic term) support in XForms, 
>rather than a "hard-wired" need for W3C XML Schema support.

I can see it both ways. Sticking with W3C XML Schema (incidentally, shouldn't the draft use the full name, rather than the ambiguous 'XML Schema') + some extra validation facilities makes life easier for implementers and authors alike, in that they know what they can expect - you get a stable base and simpler portability. 

Plug-in schema language support implies, among other things: setting schema validation order/precedence/alternatives;
to provide graceful handling of non-support of schema languages by implementations, etc. This would probably be a lot of work - I don't know, it is not something I have ever tried to do. 

On the other hand it would make XForms seriously useful in ways it cannot so easily be just now. Take Schematron - its built-in support for workflow type applications should make it an ideal partner for forms based applications.

As you say, it would have been better to bring this up a long time ago; in fact I would be surprised if it hasn't already been talked about a long time ago.

All the best

Mark

Received on Monday, 2 September 2002 10:44:49 UTC