Re: [xml-dev] Which is the Authority: The Schema or the Text?

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

> 
> One resolution is to write into the text "if there are any conflicts, the schema wins".  I don't think it's helpful to write into the text "if there are any conflicts with the schema, the text wins," since schema users will just ignore that, and I don't know how to write into the schema, "if there are any conflicts with the text, the text wins," although that might be what is wanted.
> 

It doesn't matter what you write down, it depends on who wins when you start fighting over it.

It comes back to the question I often ask about constraints: what happens when your man in Egypt employs a 14-year-old tea-boy and the database (or the company process manual) says he can't? Does the tea-boy get sacked, or not? I'm sure the answer is likely to vary from one company to another, and probably depends on personalities. In most organisations I've come across, the tea-boy stays, but off the official payroll, so everyone is happy.

In XML terms, the schema wins, the tea-boy doesn't appear in the instance documents, or if he does, he appears with a falsified age. But he's still there, making tea.

Michael Kay
Saxonica