[Bug 5732] Provide a simplified syntax for XSD 1.1

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=5732


Gioele Barabucci <barabucc@cs.unibo.it> changed:

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--- Comment #3 from Gioele Barabucci <barabucc@cs.unibo.it>  2008-09-22 09:23:43 ---
Maybe the term "compact syntax" describes the target of the
requirements Paolo Marinelli outlined better than "simplified syntax".

While the role of a simplified syntax is to ease the learning, and maybe
the writing, of XML schemata, a compact syntax aims to shorten the time
needed to write or sketch an XML schema or to modify an existing XML
schema.

These are some use cases I found for a *compact* syntax:

* Sketch on paper: Alice and Bob are asked to write a schema for a
certain class of documents. They sketch the schema using sheets of paper
and a dashboard. They discuss and jot down many different possible
designs.

A compact syntax is required because they are writing code by hand, and
we all know that writing XML by hand on paper is a tedious task.

* Prototyping: Lucas is trying to "reverse engineering" the schema
of a document. He does so in little steps, using an test-and-fail
approach. This involves rewriting the content model of a certain
element many times before going on to work on the next element.

In this case a compact syntax permits Lucas to write less code while
he goes through all the needed iterations. At the end he will probably
convert his work into a well commented schema, but in the meantime he
saves time by not dealing with the verbosity of XML and the (not so
easy) syntax of XML Schema.

* Extending DTD: Petra uses a 10-year old DTD with many constraints
stated inside the comments of the DTD. Frequently she forgets to satisfy
a constraint that says that the <accounts> element must contain at least
two account numbers, but less that ten for legacy reasons. The DTD-based
validator cannot spot this error.

A compact syntax based on DTD permits to add little snippets of XML
Schema into existing DTDs, bringing the functionality of XML Schema
where required (in this case the maxLength facet for a list of numbers)
without the need for a complete rewrite of old DTDs into full-fledged
schemata using the XML syntax of XML Schema.

As you can see all these use cases are related to manual writing of a
schema. I think there is little interest for a compact non-XML syntax
when it comes to automated generation of schemata.

Finally, a DTD-based syntax permits to embed an XML Schema in an
XML document using the <!DOCTYPE> declaration.


Gioele Barabucci


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Received on Monday, 22 September 2008 09:24:22 UTC