Proposed Conformance Clause for genericode 1.0 specification

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>]

Hi folks,

I'm struggling with how much to put (or not to put) into a 
conformance clause for genericode.

We certainly do not want to restrict *how* or *where* genericode is 
being used.  For example, I've posted in the UBL group a distillation 
of the International Data Dictionary spreadsheets as a number of 
genericode files.  This makes the information in these spreadsheets 
available as an XML resource for application developers to read and 
load up their application structures with language-based definitions 
suitable for pop-ups or help information.  The main post is here:

   http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl/200707/msg00027.html

And there has been some discussion on UBL-Dev about things like column names:

   http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/200707/msg00006.html

I chose genericode because it can be used as a general-purpose 
keyed-table (used for data representation), unlike other table 
structures such as CALS tables (used for data presentation) that 
differ.  Interestingly, my current thoughts on this are to use 
<ComplexValue> elements and xml:lang= for content distinction.

But it illustrates my point about conformance:  this data structure 
isn't being used as a (traditional?) code list, and I wouldn't want a 
conformance statement to prevent it from being used any way I need.

I think we should rename the XSD file from CodeList.xsd to 
genericode.xsd and use the following simple statement of conformance 
as section 5 of the specification.  The current use of ID attributes 
in the document model ensures the uniqueness constraint of column 
identifiers and column references is checked, so I removed a sentence 
I originally had that indicated those aspects of uniqueness ... why 
mention it if it is already covered by the first sentence?

Please let me know what you think about the text below.

In particular, Mary, would such an abbreviated definition of 
conformance be acceptable to OASIS if it is acceptable to the 
CLRTC?  Second, do the OASIS naming guidelines compel us to 
incorporate a version number in the main XSD file such as 
genericode-1.0.xsd (I don't see any need for a version number in the 
utility xml.xsd fragment)?

Thanks!

. . . . . . . . . . Ken

Conformance

    An XML instance is considered to be conforming to the
    OASIS code list representation genericode document model
    if it does not violate any constraints expressed in the
    genericode.xsd and xml.xsd schema expressions associated
    with this version of the specification.


--
Upcoming public training: XSLT/XSL-FO Sep 10, UBL/code lists Oct 1
World-wide corporate, govt. & user group XML, XSL and UBL training
RSS feeds:     publicly-available developer resources and training
G. Ken Holman                 mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com
Crane Softwrights Ltd.          http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/o/
Box 266, Kars, Ontario CANADA K0A-2E0    +1(613)489-0999 (F:-0995)
Male Cancer Awareness Jul'07  http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/o/bc
Legal business disclaimers:  http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/legal