XML without a net - XPackage step for XProc?

["Ken North" <kennorth@sbcglobal.net>]

We've had discussions here about schema best practices, versioning and archiving 
practices.
But still unresolved is the best approach to "self-contained XML" - scenarios 
where we must operate without an Internet link or retrieve old document archives 
and want to avoid missing information.

It's not uncommon for the processing of a document instance to depend on 
different web sites for schema, namespace and SQL database mapping information. 
Despite W3C guidelines, there's no guarantee those links will be persistent. In 
addition, some applications must be capable of operating in disconnected mode. 
Those situations call for something like an XPackage so there's no need to look 
to external links for schemas, namespaces, etc.

One packaging solution might be XProc. Following the XInclude and validation 
steps, there could be an option to archive everything in an XPackage. For good 
measure, it could include a reference parser. If a user opens the XPackage on a 
desert island or pulls it from a DVD in 15 years, he or she would have what's 
needed to operate on a document.


======== Ken North ===========
www.KNComputing.com

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