- From: Richard Rathmann <rrathmann@csc.noaa.gov>
- Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 13:49:08 -0400
- To: www-xml-schema-comments@w3.org
Should there be a "usage" or similar attribute on <elementType> and <attrDecl> elements (or even inheritable from other schema elements) which suggests a guideline for when to use an element or attribute? Elements currently don't have this, beyond setting the number of times it may occur within a given content model. Attributes are limited to being required (#REQUIRED), fixed (#FIXED), or defaulted/optional (I group these two together as #IMPLIED is essentially equivalent to defaulting to a "null" value). In addition to adding these three options to a "usage" attribute for elements, additional values may be provided for "mandatory/required when applicable," "recommended," and "recommended when applicable." In the Text Encoding Initiative's Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange element/attribute reference list (<http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/bin/tei-tocs?div=DIV1&id=REFTAG>) they use three letter codes (REQ, MWA, REC, RWA, and OPT) for usage field values when describing attributes for each element. I feel that these (with the possible addition of FIX) would make suitable enumerated values for a "usage" attribute. ****************************************** Richard E. Rathmann REMSA Contractor NOAA Coastal Services Center 2234 S Hobson Ave Charleston, SC 29405-2413 (843) 740-1314 (843) 740-1224 (fax) ******************************************
Received on Friday, 28 May 1999 13:49:15 UTC