[Bug 4907] The infoset is not a data structure and not an API

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=4907

           Summary: The infoset is not a data structure and not an API
           Product: XML Schema
           Version: 1.0/1.1 both
          Platform: Macintosh
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Structures: XSD Part 1
        AssignedTo: cmsmcq@w3.org
        ReportedBy: cmsmcq@w3.org
         QAContact: www-xml-schema-comments@w3.org


In section 3.16.3, the Schema Representation Constraint:
QName Interpretation reads in part:

    In the absence of the [in-scope namespaces] property in 
    the infoset for the schema document in question, processors 
    must reconstruct equivalent information as necessary, 
    using the [namespace attributes] of the containing element 
    information item and its ancestors.

This formulation reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of
the nature of information sets, which we should neither retain
in our spec nor encourage in others.  The [in-scope namespaces]
property and the [namespace attributes] property of the basic
infoset are not names for different fields in a data structure;
the former is merely a different name for a subset of the
information present in the latter.  It is not only not
necessary to "reconstruct the equivalent information", if
[namespace attributes] is present, but it is not possible
for the information of [namespace attributes] to be present
without the information of [in-scope namespaces] being
present.

The existing text would make sense if the infoset spec were
the description of a data structure, or of an API.  It is
neither.

The paragraph in question should be deleted.

Received on Thursday, 2 August 2007 01:35:34 UTC