Are Schema import statements transitive?

It appears that import statements in schemas 
are NOT transitive. For example, consider
the following situation:


     import        import
A ----------> B ---------> C


We had assumed that schema A will automatically
also import schema C (in fact, some parsers appear to behave in
this way). But apparently this is not the specified behavior. One
of the Xerces developers first brought this to our attention, and a
closer reading of the XML Schema spec seems to corroborate this:

Section 4.2.3 of Part 1 (Structures) states the following with
respect to referencing schema components across namespaces:

"Two things are required: not only a means of addressing such
foreign components but also a signal to schema-aware processors
that a schema document contains such references..."

The <import> statement is the signal, of course. This seems to imply
that schema A above would also have to import schema C. 

Can anyone else shed some light here?

_____
[This mail represents part of a discussion of work in progress 
and should not be used for any purpose without my permission.] 
_____
Simon.Cox@csiro.au  CSIRO Exploration & Mining
26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington WA 6151
PO Box 1130, Bentley WA 6102  AUSTRALIA
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Received on Thursday, 25 April 2002 22:10:04 UTC