Re: [xml-dev] XML feature manifest/profile (was RE:: [xml-dev] Re: determining ID-ness in XML )

[Gavin Thomas Nicol <gtn@rbii.com>]

> And that's the problem I was scratching at with:
> "5) Refactor the various specs so that they layer cleanly, and add some
> sort of "features" or "profile" string to negotiate the feature set
> between the processor and the application."
> http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200111/msg00794.html

I tend to be against this, mostly because people and the processors will 
almost certainly not negotiate cleanly. If you're worried about there being 
so many variations on a theme, you're better off contraining the input to
reduce the number of combinations.

In other words, I'd remove features (like ID!) from XML entirely, or remove 
them from the model (like Entity boundaries) before giving people an 
*optional* way of processing them.