LC-15 allowing hints for initial value of an attribute

Dear Mr. Arnold:

The W3C XML Schema Working Group has spent the last several months
working through the comments received from the public on the last-call
draft of the XML Schema specification.  We thank you for the comments
you made on our specification during our last-call comment period, and
want to make sure you know that all comments received during the
last-call comment period have been recorded in our last-call issues
list (http://www.w3.org/2000/05/12-xmlschema-lcissues).

Among other issues, you raised the point registered as issue LC-15,
which suggests that provision be made in XML Schema for hints for the
initial value of attributes (for use in user interfaces like forms,
etc.), distinct from the default value already supported.

There was some uncertainty in the WG over the extent to which default
value mechanism can already be used in the way you suggest (as you
point out that the XForms WG is already doing).  To the extent that a
separate mechanism is desirable, it appears a natural candidate for
inclusion in the appinfo section of the appropriate declaration:
appinfo is designed for application-specific information, in
particular information that does not affect validation or the
construction of the post-schema-validation infoset.  In short, we
agree with you that such hints may be useful in the construction of
user interfaces, and have already provided the appinfo construct as a
place to put them.  Further action (in particular, including such a
hint construct in the schema language) seemed unnecessary at this time.
Definition is such an element is better left to specialists in user
interface design.

It would be helpful to us to know whether you are satisfied with the
decision taken by the WG on this issue, or wish your dissent from the
WG's decision to be recorded for consideration by the Director of
the W3C.

with best regards,

-C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
  World Wide Web Consortium
  Co-chair, W3C XML Schema WG

Received on Thursday, 5 October 2000 16:58:40 UTC