xml-dev - Locating schemas (was Re: Irony heaped on irony)

[John Aldridge <john.aldridge@informatix.co.uk>]

At 23:48 20/05/00 -0500, Dan Connolly wrote:
>David Megginson wrote in his message of Thu, 18 May 2000 16:44:04 -0400
> > XML schemas should allow *only* the xsi:schemaLocation attribute and
> > no other mechanism,
>
>I accept this as your opinion, but it's not a conclusion that
>I'm compelled to accept on the basis of the argument you've
>presented.

And I disagree with both of you :-)

The problem with dereferencing either the namespace URI or the 
schemaLocation attribute is that it means the _author_ of the XML document 
is providing explicit instructions on how to locate the schema.

Unfortunately, this author may have no understanding of the environment of 
the _reader_ of the XML document. The schema location used by the XML 
author may be inaccessible to the reader, and this reader should not have 
to resort to editing the XML document before (s)he can make sense of it.

I don't object to URI dereferencing as a fallback if the reader has not 
given more explicit instructions, but the primary method should be for the 
reader to "install" a schema locally, and for XML processing software then 
to "know" where to find the schema information for the corresponding namespace.
--
Cheers,
John


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