Re: [relax-ng] Some ideas about simple type assignment

[James Clark <jjc@jclark.com>]

> I would suggest that we use collections of path-datatype pairs
> together wth RELAX NG Schemas.  Here is an example of such a
> collection
>
>
> @a       int
> a/@b     int
> a/b/c    float
> a/b/c/@d  short

The problem I see with this is that it creates extra work for the user.  In
most cases, the collection of path-datatype pairs is implicit in the schema.
If a user has specified in the schema:

 <attribute name="a"><data type="int"/></attribute>

why do we need to force them to specify

@a    int

?

> It is possible to slightly extend this by allowing "//"
> everywhere, for example.  But I think that fixed paths are good
> enough

It's very common for schemas to have elements which allow arbitrary
well-formed XML.  For example, RELAX NG allows annotation elements to
contain arbitrary XML.  I'm not sure what criterion you have in mind for an
assetion's being correct wrt a schema, but using the obvious criterion, no
simple type assertion would be correct wrt to such a schema.

James