re Len's questions

[Terry Allen <tallen@sonic.net>]

Len Gallagher wrote:
| Other questions that come up with the <registry> DTD are:
| 
| 1) What happens with <classification-scheme> DTD's? Are they registered
| together with <data-element>s, or are they treated special?  Or both?

The registry DTD wasn't meant to be normative (although if you'd
like it to be we can discuss that), but only a demonstration
that you could model an entire registry in XML and what it 
would contain (we've seen it's faulty wrt contents, as it has
no place for related data).

There is a considerable thread now developing on sc32-news
about classification schemes (wrt the X3.285 metamodel, and
much more complex than I care to summarize).  It seems clear
that the ANSI X3.L8'ers envision classification schemes
as residing in SOME registry where they are accessible for
machine use, and to me that only makes sense.  For the 
purposes of the OASIS spec, I would say that if you have
a classification scheme, you should have access to an XML
representation of it (or access to some representation of
it that can be transformed into an XML representation on
demand).  That is, a classification scheme is part of the
XML application that we're specifying.

| 2) If a single <data-element> is submitted as one item in a
| <data-element-dictionary> element having no other meta-information, are
| they both registered as distinct items in the Registry? Can I submit a
| <data-element> for registration if it is not part of a
| <data-element-dictionary> element?

To the first question I'd say yes, because the d.e.d. may
have other d.e.s added to it, and those d.e.s may have
differing metadata.  That's on the assumption that the
registry involves registers multiple d.e.d.s; a metadata
registry that just registers data elements has no concept
of a d.e.d. apart from the totality of its own contents.
(This is a point where we are extending the reach of 11179.)

To the second question, I'd say this is a matter of registry
policy:  does it contain multiple d.e.d.s (in which case it
wants to know which one to put the d.e. in) or only a bunch
of d.e.s (in which case it has no concept of a d.e.d.)

Does that make sense?

regards, Terry