Re: [ubl-ndrsc] Rule: 96 Two Schema

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

** Reply to message from Chin Chee-Kai <cheekai@softml.net> on Mon, 21 Jul 2003
12:33:47 +0800 (SGT)

> >>Although I understand the orthodoxy behind only wanting a single normative
> >>version of any deliverable, I strongly support UBL providing the two flavours
> >>of Schema.
> 
> So I suppose we don't differ so much here.  Is it right
> to say that your point being:  Provide the undocumented
> version to help others, but ok with having only one 
> normative form (say, the documented one)?

Here is where we differ.  I want to challenge the idea that only one Schema
should be normative, much as I understand the usual reasons for having single
normative versions of documents.  A big issue here is *which* should be the
normative version.  For some people, the answer will be obvious, but it will
depend on what kind of problems, and scale of problems, you think about.  The
obvious answer isn't the same one for everyone.

For large production systems, the Schema without annotations is what people
will want.  They will certainly want this unannotated Schema to be the
normative Schema, since it is the one that will be used for validating
documents, and you can't take a risk on using a non-normative Schema.  It is
less urgent that the informative annotated Schema be normative, since it is
just something you use once to get the metadata into your relational database.

For smaller systems, dealing with smaller volumes of smaller documents, the
size of the Schemas will likely not be such an issue, and it might seem
convenient to just use the annotated Schema.  In that case, I can see why
people would want the annotated Schemas to be normative.

My suggestion that both be normative is because (a) there is no single solution
that satisfies both of these groups, and (b) given that the only difference is
the annotations, we should be able to produce two Schemas that behave
identically for validation purposes.  However, if people feel uncomfortable
with this, I would suggest that the unannotated Schema be the normative one.  I
would argue that normative annotations are not as necessary as normative
validation, and so high-end users shouldn't be cut out.

	Cheers,
		Tony.
====
Anthony B. Coates
London Market Systems Limited
33 Throgmorton Street, London, EC2N 2BR 
http://www.londonmarketsystems.com/
mailto:abcoates@londonmarketsystems.com
Mobile/Cell: +44 (79) 0543 9026
[MDDL Editor (Market Data Definition Language), http://www.mddl.org/]
[FpML Arch WG Member (Financial Products Markup Language), http://www.fpml.org/]
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