RE: Encouragement to commit to partnering with XML Schema datatypes

[Michael Fitzgerald <mike@wyeast.net>]

Hello Aron,

I don't think you need to be concerned about RELAX NG direction wrt
datatypes. I do not speak for the TC, but I can assure you that RELAX NG
will very likely never 'reinvent the wheel' in regard to datatypes. It is a
language for structural validation of XML patterns that plugs in, so to
speak, datatypes from other vocabularies and namespaces, such as XML Schema
Part 2 datatypes. RELAX NG will not go out of sync with XML Schema datatypes
by creating its own datatype library, but will only use datatype libraries
from other namespaces as modules. I believe this modularity speaks to the
simplicity, flexibility, and expressiveness of the language. In my opinion,
RELAX NG does not 'compete against' XML Schema but provides a lightweight
alternative (as Murata-san would say) to XML Schema. In addition, I do not
believe the RELAX NG TC is working under the auspices of any commercial
interests, but will succeed based on its solid theoretical foundation that
will circumvent future troubling anomalies.

Best regards,

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Aron Roberts [mailto:aron@socrates.Berkeley.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 12:11 PM
To: relax-ng-comment@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: Ian Galpin
Subject: Encouragement to commit to partnering with XML Schema datatypes


Hi,

   Congratulations and thanks for all your efforts to date on RELAX
and TREX, and for your commitment to further develop RELAX NG
<URL:http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/relax-ng/index.shtml>, as a
specification for a simpler and more regular alternative to XML
Schema.

   This message is to strongly encourage you to commit at an early
stage to partnering with XML Schema datatypes.  There are
considerable, perhaps obvious advantages in maintaining datatype
interoperability between these two schema languages.  Also, there's
little point in 'reinventing the wheel' in this area.

   By doing so, you will also help ensure that such standards as ISO
8601 -- the International standard for date and time representations,
which has the virtues of being unambiguous and easily parsed, and
which is already fully reflected in XML Schema's date and time
datatypes -- will also (by extension) become an integral part of
RELAX NG.

Many thanks,

Aron Roberts  Workstation Software Support Group . 221 Evans Hall
               University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3808 USA
               aron@socrates.berkeley.edu . +1 510-642-5974 . fax
510-643-5385

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