LC-95 the XML namespace and xml:lang

Dear Jane:

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-95,
which asks for clarification about whether xml:lang needs to be
declared or imported like any ordinary attribute (and if so, asks
where the schema for the XML namespace is).

We thank you for raising the question.  As Henry Thompson has already
noted in a note of 5 May, the short answers are 'yes', and
'http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace'.

N.B. The schema document at that URL is in the current syntax -- which
means that its syntax has changed in an incompatible way as a result
of recent changes to the syntax of XML Schema.  It is the intent of
the XML Schema WG that this address be a mutable generic resource,
which returns, at any given time, the current recommended syntax for
an XML Schema document declaring the names in the XML namespace.
Immutable resources are also provided, with year and month numbers in
the URI, to ensure that schemas can be constructed so as not to break
in the event there are incompatible changes in future versions of XML
Schema.  The exact URIs to use for the immutable versions of the XML
namespace schema document are currently the subject of discussion
between the XML Schema WG and the W3C webmaster; the immutable URI
will be given in the next published version of the spec.

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 17:41:10 UTC