[cddlm] XML-CDL schema issue

[Steve Loughran]

Stuart Schaefer wrote:
> Jun and Steve,
> 
>  
> 
> Microsoft was supposed to have fixed their XML parser issues with .NET 
> 2.0.  It appears that most issues that I have tested are resolved. 
>  However, the issue with ##local and ##other are still there.

ooh. that is not good. is it an acknowledged bug, or just a different 
interpretation of XSD?

>  The 
> XML-CDL schema defines the propertyListType and cdl elements to have an 
> unlimited choice of either element.  MSXML will not accept this.  We 
> will either need to allow for a .NET schema and Java schema or my 
> proposal would be to eliminate ##local and force all elements to have 
> namespace qualification.


1. having two different XSDs that map to the same URL is always a bit 
controversial; it would stop us hosting a consistent image at the end of 
the URL. However, the semantics of the two schemas would actually match. 
That is, under .net, the ##other declaration would cover local elements; 
under xerces the pair of ##local,##other would do what we want. it is 
only if the schema is used on the wrong runtime that we have a problem.

2. I already do fixup in the build (target "patch-api") to swap between 
local versions of the schemas and the normative remote locations. Adding 
some more copy/patch work is not hard at all.

3. I (currently) quite like local stuff, and have used it a lot in my 
tests. changing it now would break my tests, and this week is a bad week 
do to that. The week after GGF would work better.

4. I think I need to fully understand the interaction between XSD 
namespaces and <import> namespaces. They are essentially orthogonal, 
arent they. <import> namespace just provides a namespace for something 
to import into, the contents of <cdl:configuration> dont need to be in 
that NS, we just somehow isolate all toplevel propertylist elements by 
that namespace. Except, I already isolate stuff by a namespace if you 
give an element one.

---------

Overall, I am mostly in favour of keeping ##local stuff and doing fixup. 
But because of my confusion about (4), i worry that there is something I 
dont understand there, and everything ought to be in a namespace. 
Specifically, if you want to be able to import other people's documents, 
to extend them, you may need everything in a namespace.

-steve