representing XML structures in the spec

[Stephen Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com>]

I asked about the way W3C specs (XML Schema, XSLT, etc)
represent XML structures when specifying a particular syntax
/ language. I like the convention they use so I asked on 'XML
Dev' mail list for help in tracking down what the convention is

e.g. in a W3C XML Schema spec there is a section called
"XML Representation Summary"

http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/

with the example key to the representation

<example
  count = integer
  size = (large | medium | small) : medium>
  Content: (all | any*)
</example>

I thought this is very handy to use in the Test Assertion Part 2
spec for introducing each structure in TAML.

I learned that the convention was just developed by the spec
authors, starting with XSLT 1 (James Clark) then XML Schema
(Henry Thompson) and then XSLT 2 (Michael Kay) and both
Henry and Michael responded to say no problem with our using
the same.

http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200910/threads.html#00023

So I'd propose starting to use this in the TAML spec and we can
see how we get on with it. So I hope to make a start soon with
this 'meaty' part of the spec  - no more pretty diagrams - down to
the tough stuff now :-) So expect me asking for for help with those
semantic definitions and syntactic rules in the near future.

Best regards

Steve


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Stephen D Green