[Bug 3230] Atomic = not decomposable?

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=3230





------- Comment #1 from cmsmcq@w3.org  2006-09-20 00:26 -------
You are of course correct.  A good principled definition of atomicity
seems elusive, so fixing this appears to require non-trivial editorial
ingenuity.  Reviewing some literature on the relational model, I 
wonder whether it would be better not to say that the values are
atomic, or not decomposable, but only that they are treated as such
in the framework of schema-validity assessment.  (It would be too much
to say "treated as atomic by this specification", because of course
the seven-property model of dates and times explicitly treats the
values of numerous types as tuples.)

A more formal response on behalf of the working group will follow, when
we have approved a wording change, or when the editors have torn all
their hair out and given up.

Received on Wednesday, 20 September 2006 00:26:59 UTC