xml-dev - XSD: What will it do?

["David Peterson" <david.peterson@iname.com>]

I've been following the XSD thread for a while, and basically agree with the
goals, but other than being in XML format, what do you want SDDs to be able
to do that DTDs can't?  Documentation is an important one, but that doesn't
help with the structure.  And if it can do things DTDs cant, then you're
always going to loose information when you translate to and from DTDs.

Don't get me wrong - I all for the idea - I just want some clarification on
what you all see as being it's extra capabilities.

Also, on the syntax side, are you thinking along the lines of the following
(sans prolog) (eg a simplified HTML SDD:

<xsd> (or should it be <sdd>?)
<element>
   <name>html</name>
   <description>The root tag for HTML</description>
   <element-list type="ordered">
      <element-type name="head"/>
      <element-list type="or">
         <element-type name="body"/>
         <element-type name="frameset"/>
      </element-list>
   </element-list>
</element>

<element>
   <name>body</name>
   <description>Contains the body text of the document</description>
   <element-list type="unordered">
      <element-item name="p"/>
      <element-item name="h1"/>
      <element-item name="hr"/>
   </element-list>
   <attribute-list>
      <attribute>
         <name>background</name>
         <description>The URL for the background image of the
page</description>
         <type>PCDATA</type>
      </attribute>
      <attribute>
         <name>text</name>
         <description>The text colour</description>
         <type>PCDATA</type>
      </attribute>
   </attribute-list>
</element>
<etc-etc-etc/>
</xsd>

Now, I'm not trying to advocate a syntax or a DTD for XSD yet, I'm asking if
I'm on the right track.  Is this basically the type of thing XSD is trying
to do?  What else will it do?  Should I eat rice bubbles or corn flakes in
the morning?

David


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