ISO8601 and XML Schema dateTime

Now that we have a recommendation I am trying to finalize my date handling
(in line with the spec.)  I am strugling to understand the lexical
representation and how it fits with ISO 8601.  The spec says:

"[Definition:]   dateTime represents a specific instant of time. The ˇvalue
spaceˇ of dateTime is the space of Combinations of date and time of day
values as defined in § 5.4 of [ISO 8601]."

1) The goes on to specify (in the lexical representation) that an optional
+/- is allowed to precede the ISO representation of the date/time-- which is
not in ISO 8601 that I can find-- what is the reasoning?

2) Within ISO 8601 5.4 is the combination of date (5.2) and time (5.3).  Are
additional lexical representations using truncation permitted?

3) Fractional parts of seconds, according to 5.2 may be separated using the
[,] comma character and that is in fact the preferred method.  Is this
allowed wrt lexical representation of the XML Schema dateTime?

Please bear with me as I am new to date time processing and want to get it
right.

Thanks,
Jeff Rafter
Defined Systems
http://www.defined.net
XML Development and Developer Web Hosting

Received on Tuesday, 8 May 2001 15:59:42 UTC