Re: errata in general and on 'language' datatype

Martin Duerst <duerst@w3.org> writes:

<snip/>

> Second, erratum E41 to XML 1.0 second edition
> (http://www.w3.org/XML/xml-V10-2e-errata#E41) adds the
> possibility to have xml:lang="". This is important for
> various scenarios ranging from SOAP to RDF to XML Singatures.
> This is currently not allowed for the 'language' simple type.
> While strictly speaking, this is an unforseeable change,
> I'm wondering how it the current version of XML Schema
> the absence of language is indicated (an absence which
> always was possible even before this erratum to XML 1.0,
> at least at the top of the tree and as far down as the
> first actual xml:lang.

xs:language is a type which can be used in the same way as any other
type, to guarantee the syntax of elements and/or attributes declared
to be of that type.  The _semantics_ of those elements/attributes is
up to applications, not XML Schema.

> Would something like xml:lang="xsi:nil" have done the job?

Not at all -- xsi:nil is an attribute with an impact on
schema-validity assessment, that's all.

Thanks for your other suggestions.

ht
-- 
  Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
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Received on Monday, 14 July 2003 16:45:28 UTC