Code list comments from today's SSC telecon

["Anthony B. Coates" <abcoates@londonmarketsystems.com>]

Guys, here are what I wrote down from a discussion of code lists at  
today's SSC telecon:

====
To discuss with UBL Code List team: Need to deal with the traditional  
issue that some code lists will change between versions of UBL, and this  
is a problem since UBL is distributing snapshots of some code lists. How  
are the code lists decoupled in some sense so that a new release is UBL is  
not required each time a code list changes. This is a problem right now,  
since some UBL 1.0 lists (e.g. currencies) are already out of date. What  
will UBL be advising people to do, now and into the future. UBL 1.0 does  
not have the facility to specify an over-ride code list, it seems (0.7 and  
1.0 beta did). Can it be done as an errata mechanism? Problem is how many  
of the Schemas have to change if the version (and hence namespace URI) of  
a code list Schema has to change.

There is also concern that the code list Schemas must have a named global  
simple type for each code list. I had thought this was already the case,  
but will need to check what actually happened in 1.0.
====

I was very busy when UBL 1.0 was finalised, and wasn't dialling in much,  
so some of this caught me by surprise, but it seems that UBL 1.0 does not  
allow you to substitute your own code list to replace one supplied by  
UBL.  That's an inconvenience for communities that have a good reason for  
wanting a different (perhaps smaller) version of the code list.  Worse  
though, are that the UBL code lists apparently have 1 UBL error and 1  
currency code that it no longer valid.

The question is how to deal with this, without requiring a new minor  
release of UBL 1.0.x every time a code change or fix is required.  Can  
updated code list Schemas be issued with the change, without re-issing  
everything, or does namespace coupling mean that you have also have to  
re-issue all Schemas that reference the code list, and all Schemas that  
reference those (remember the version, and hence the namespace URI,  
changes on each every time you re-issue it).  There needs to be some  
solution now, as well as a plan for what it should be in the future.

Just so you know,

	Cheers,
		Tony.
-- 
Anthony B. Coates
London Market Systems Limited
33 Throgmorton Street, London, EC2N 2BR, UK
http://www.londonmarketsystems.com/
mailto:abcoates@londonmarketsystems.com
Mobile/Cell: +44 (79) 0543 9026
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