[DFDL-WG] Make dfdl:initiatedContent discriminating

[Alan Powell]

Currently dfdl:initiatedContent is used purely as a check that all the 
content of a sequence or choice have an initiator specified.

initiatedContent
Booloean
When 'true' indicates that all the children of the choice are initiated. 
It is a schema definition error if any children have their dfdl:initiator 
property set to the empty string.
When 'false', the children of the choice may have their dfdl:initiator 
property set to the empty string.
Annotation: dfdl:sequence, dfdl:choice, dfdl:group 


It would help implementations decide more quickly if optional complex 
elements are present, and therefore have to save state less often,  if 
initiatedContent was also made discriminating. I would expect that in most 
uses cases the initiator is the discriminator so this change would make 
that simpler to specify. The same effect can be achieved by adding a 
dfdl:discriminator to each element but that is having to specify the same 
intent twice. 

If the initiator is not the discriminator then initiatedContent can be set 
to 'false'.  You lose the schema checking but this is a less common case.

What do you think?

Alan Powell

 MP 211, IBM UK Labs, Hursley,  Winchester, SO21 2JN, England
 Notes Id: Alan Powell/UK/IBM     email: alan_powell at uk.ibm.com 
 Tel: +44 (0)1962 815073                  Fax: +44 (0)1962 816898






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