XML Schema 1.1

Gentle People,

Here is some food for thought ...

In traditional EDI, 'detail' areas sometimes omit information previously 
provided within a 'header' area.  For example, a default 'currency' may be 
provided in the header, and is to be used unless overridden in a specific 
detail instance.

In our work to develop an XML syntax for transmiting EDI data, we have 
defined 'semantic units' of information.  One such example is an 'amount' 
which must include a 'currency' to have semantic usefullness.  To represent 
an 'amount', we define an XML element of type amount, having a numeric 
value, and having a 'currency' attribute.  If the currency were always 
fixed or generally highly variable within a message, the existing XML 
capability would suffice.  But it is not.

Perhaps what we are looking for is a means to specify a default locator, 
and of course, the logic to support its traversal and attribute value 
substitution.  And perhaps this might be accomplished by extending the 
fixed/default option to fixed/default/defaultfrom.

Cheers,
               Bob Miller
               eBusiness Consultant to:
               Global eXchange Services