RE: Comment on 'W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSDL) 1.1 Part 1: Structures'

 
>   Under the section titled '12. XML Representation of 
> Identity-constraint Definition Schema Components', a note is 
> made as follows below:
>  'Note: Provision for multi-field keys etc. goes beyond what 
> is supported by xsl:key.' 
>   But there is a normative example of how multiple fields can 
> act as a key within a single element. This is in the same 
> section but titled under 'Example' where 'State'
> and 'plateNumber' is asserted to be a key for  'vehicle'. 
>   
>   If that is the case, then the note may be removed. 

Personal response: there's no such thing as a "normative example". Notes and
examples are always non-normative: they are there to be helpful, and in both
cases it should always be possible to remove them without affecting the
spec. The criterion for keeping a note (or example) is therefore whether it
helps readers, not whether it may be removed without losing anything. I
think this particular note was present in 1.0 and may have outlived its
usefulness, but it's hard to judge, given the wide variety of backgrounds of
the readers.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

Received on Monday, 12 November 2007 09:26:00 UTC