xml-dev - Re: verbose XSchema Spec Section 2.4, Draft 2

[Toby Speight <tms@ansa.co.uk>]

Simon> Simon St.Laurent <URL:mailto:SimonStL@classic.msn.com>

=> In article <UPMAIL17.199806252327530736@classic.msn.com>, Simon
=> wrote:

Simon> The concern I have is that processing XSchemas now requires a
Simon> lot of extra checking on the 'correctness' of the XSchema.
Simon> Using the elements, convoluted though it was, allowed the use
Simon> of a simple validation (okay, it's ironic) to make sure that
Simon> the XSchema wasn't attempting to provide an odd combination of
Simon> functionality.
Simon>
Simon> Does this extra overhead for checking XSchemas bother anyone?
Simon> The goals said that XSchema would have a DTD, not that an XSchema
Simon> that can validate against the DTD would be functionally correct.
Simon> (Or some such weirdness.)  So far we've been using the DTD to
Simon> constrain the XSchema's possible content.  This would be a change
Simon> of philosophy in that regard.

I like using the DTD as much as possible to constrain the XSchema.
There is a small benefit, as you mention, for validation of complete
XSchemas if most of the work can be done by the parser, but I think
the real benefit comes when editing: a decent XML editor[*] can
improve my productivity by reducing the number of mistakes I can
make.  It's much easier and faster to spot errors as one is editing,
rather than have to invoke an external validator to find them.  (In a
similar way, I prefer editors to understand the syntax of programming
languages, as I don't like having to wait for compilation too often.)

[*] I only use psgml on Emacs; I assume this applies to editors in
    general, though.

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