Re: [ubl-ndrsc] XML and Polymorphism

["Eve L. Maler" <eve.maler@sun.com>]

Not having been on the call this week (sorry), I have what is, no doubt, 
a dumb question.  Does "polymorphism" here mean the ability of an 
element to be bound to two *unrelated* types at one time (something XSD 
doesn't really allow), or the notion that Arofan/Eduardo introduced at 
XML 2002, which is more like "Elements can be understood in terms of 
their explicitly bound type and also as any ancestor thereof"?  The 
latter will not be understood by most people as polymorphism, I believe. 
  It's just inheritance.

	Eve

Matthew Gertner wrote:
> All,
> 
> I haven't been particularly successful in my search for an accessible
> description of polymorphism in XML. This may be partly because my
> googling (tm) led me quickly to this link:
> 
> http://xml.coverpages.org/arch-inherit.html
> 
> ...which I spent the next hour reading. Yes, there truly are people on
> this planet who write even longer and more turgid mails than I do! I
> wouldn't recommend that anyone go within 10 miles of this link, unless
> they have an intense interest in the philosophical history of XML
> inheritance circa 1998. The thread does end with an interesting post by
> our very own TC Chair which might be the first official announcement
> ever of the existence of a W3C XML Schema effort.
> 
> I also rediscovered the existence of a paper by Matt Fuchs entitled
> "Role of an Extensible, Polymorphic Schema Language for Electronic
> Commerce Communities", which could be useful. I am somewhat familiar
> with the paper since he presented it right before my talk at XML 2000,
> and I remember being annoyed that the room immediately emptied
> (presumably because everyone was too intimated to sit through a talk
> with the word "polymorphic" in the title). Unfortunately I couldn't find
> the full text of this paper anywhere. Does anyone know someone at the
> GCA who could give it to us with permission for reuse and/or who knows
> where Dr. Matt is and how he can be contacted?
> 
> Otherwise I'll just have to write something myself.
> 
> Cheers,
> Matt
> 
> 
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-- 
Eve Maler                                        +1 781 442 3190
Sun Microsystems                            cell +1 781 354 9441
Web Technologies and Standards               eve.maler @ sun.com