Re: [office-metadata] Suggested Changes on the Metadata proposal

[marbux <marbux@gmail.com>]

On 6/27/07, Svante Schubert <Svante.Schubert@sun.com> wrote:

VIII) Adjust 'shall' requirement to 'should' for xml:id

"All implementations SHALL preserve any xml:id attribute and its value
when present on any of the elements listed in 1.4.3."

Similar as other standards (e.g. CSS) we should not try to **force
features by specification,** but should let the market sort this out.
Moreover the specification could be interpreted that it is even
forbidding to delete the xml:id or its value, even when deleting the
content, therefore a 'SHOULD' is sufficient.

Please identify which specific feature(s) you believe the language attempts to force. The only feature I can think of that you might be referring to is application round-trip interoperability. Is that a feature Sun does not intend to implement? If so, why not and why should the rest of the TC members support maintenance of an interoperability barrier?

Your last sentence could be addressed by adding a sentence to the language under discussion, stating, "This does not mean that an attribute's element may not be deleted if initiated by user action."