xml-dev - Re: XML Catalog proposal

[Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com>]

> I have written up a brief proposal for an XML Catalog specification based on
> our discussions. Note, the proposal is in the XML Catalog format and is
> located at:
>
> http://www.openhealth.org/XMLCatalog/

Donnerwetter!  This is *pretty* darn good for "worse is better".  Count me
all in.

My comments:

I think the "type" attr should be renamed to "content-type" or somesuch.

Isn't "xlink:arcrole" an odd place to put the "meta-schema"?  I'm not,
however, sure what to suggest instead.

Should the "xlink:href" be required to be an absolute URI?

I don't think these links should be restricted to schemata.  I really like
the "see-also" possibilities available here where one can reference
standards docs, research papers, etc.

Also,

> XML Catalog also includes the functionality of SGML Open Catalog Format
> through the inclusion of a "public" attribute (which is optional).

As long as it's only the FPIs for the schemata.  Adding general FPI
catalog support might be a bit much.  Will we hack up the Namespace
catalog every time someone adds another related public entity?

I would rather suggest a buildt-in link type to another catalog, in which
case, no reason not to just have that in XCatalog [1].  At least one of
the XML parsers I use (xmlproc [2]) already supports XCatalog.

Even thrn, though, it looks as if there would be a boot-strapping problem.
Most parsers will read the schema before proceeding with parsing, and many
need the FPI catalog to resolve DTD constructs.  But many will not be
aware of the namespaces used in the doc yet.

There are many solutions one could suggest, including a set of PIs that
declare all the namespaces used, but I don't like this or anything else
I've thought up.

> Happy New Millenium!

Och!  Now there you go digging up yet another endless flame-war.  Whatsa
matta with you?  I'm celebrating the New Millenium on April 1, 2013.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                               Principal Consultant
uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com               +1 303 583 9900 x 101
Fourthought, Inc.                         http://Fourthought.com
4735 East Walnut St, Ste. C, Boulder, CO 80301-2537, USA
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