RE: [relax-ng] Re: RELAX NG 2.0 ideas

[Michael Fitzgerald <mike@wyeast.net>]

Kohsuke's interpretation of the semantics is not what I meant, but I
certainly don't want to suggest a confusing syntax either. I did not mean to
imply any sort of recursion. What I meant in this example is at least two
and no more than 10.

<min count="2">
 <max count="10">
  <element name="product"><text/></element>
 </max>
</min>

In RELAX NG, we have tended to "say it" with elements, rather than
attributes. That was why I am throwing around <min> and <max>. You may want
to specify a minimum count of occurrences, and you don't care about a
maximum. Just use <min>. Or you may only care about maximum; just use <max>.
You want both minimum and maximum? Use both <min> and <max>. That's my idea.

If we go with something like <repeat>, I'd prefer the element name <occurs>
instead, as in:

<occurs min="2" max="10">
 <element name="product"><text/></element>
</occurs>

If people like <repeat min='' max=''>, then what kept us from adopting it
early? I don't recall.

Kohsuke KAWAGUCHI wrote:
> This doesn't make sense to me. I suppose the semantics of
>
> <max count="n">
>    p
> </max>
>
> is "p can be repeated up to n times"
>
> and similarly the semantics of <min> would be "p must be repeated at
> least n times."
>
> If so, it should be allowed to repeat <product> 20 times in the
> following example:
>
> > <min count="2">
> >  <max count="10">
> >   <element name="product"><text/></element>
> >  </max>
> > </min>
>
> since that the outer <min> says is that you can repeat <product>*10 up
> to 2 times. I guess this is not what you want.
>
> So I think it needs to be something like <repeat min="n" max="m"> as
> we've discussed in the very early days of RELAX NG.