RE: [xml-dev] XSLT question on transitive closures

["Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>]

> 
> The actual task I am doing is not actually Schematron, it is 
> about removing families of elements from XSD schemas (an 
> element, its declaration, uses and any unique descendents.)
> 

Processing schemas at the XSD document level is quite tricky - you
potentially have to understand the horrors of xs:redefine, chameleon
includes, and the like. I've done it a few times, but only for schemas that
satisfy strict constraints (e.g. no redefines).

The latest Saxon version (currently in beta-testing) has the ability to
output an XML representation of the schema component model, which is much
more amenable to this kind of processing. Unfortunately it doesn't have the
ability to round-trip it back to XSDL source, which I guess is what many
schema transformation applications are really looking for, but I don't think
that would be hard to add.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/