Schematron now does not have an Open Standard text for it. I have a plan that I would appreciate help with.
Background:
Many of you may be aware that ISO decided not to make the new 2020 edition of the ISO Schematron standard available for free as PDFs on their publically-available specifications website. Because the new text was not simultanously maintained by a separate standards body, it did not meet their criteria.
It is their right to decide that. But it does go against what I thought was the deal with all DSDL specifications.
The galling thing is that they have also unilaterally token down the free PDFs of previous editions (2006 and 2016.) 2016 specifies the QLB for XSLT2, 2020 specifies the QLB for XSLT 3. It looks like they have also taken down the standards for the other parts of DSDL other than RELAX NG, which effectively kills them.
So now Schematron, the technology, no longer has an Open Standard, the documentation.
The schemas for Schematron are still freely distributable, by their purpose and nature. The Open Source software is still Open Source.
N.b. I encourage the members of ISO JTC1SC34 to remonstrate with the ISO Secretariat in the strongest terms. Please do not take "This is the rules" as any kind of answer: when rules cause a problem, you don't just stop with them, you start working out a solution. The obvious compromise is simply to restore the 2016 specification (and the n-1 versions of the other disappeared DSDL specs) back onto the ISO Publically Available Specifications.
Plan:
I want to put out an alternative description of exactly the same technology as ISO Schematron describes, with no common wording, and make it available as an Open Standard.
I am updating the Schematron.com website to move from WordPress to PageSeeder, perhaps this week, which provides collaborative editing facilities on a web interface. It gives us a chance to explain Schematon in hypertext with code or examples, not the particular limitations of formal standards.
The intent is not that ISO Schematron should lapse or not be maintained: it is good for adoption. But as ISO will not (they would say, cannot) support the needs of small, non-corporate, speculative and Open Source developers, there is no reason for us to sit around crying.
I hope to switch to the new site later this week. I have all the existing site moved over now. PageSeeder is a 20-year mature system, based on XLinks and topics, actually. Nick Carr of Allette Systems has very kindly provided the license free, and his staff made a look-alike for the current site.
PageSeeder is like a cross between WordPress and GitHub. It has very responsive QUASIWYG editing, revision tracking and display, threaded comments available most everywhere, TOC and topic-link generation.
Most interestingly, it has, I think, the most tightly integrated Schematron validation built into the page editors: very, very slick and pretty. (The Schematron is there to let authors know if some part of the page won't convert to whatever external XML has been registered for that site. We wouldn't be using that functionality.)
Help Wanted
So I would like for the Open Standard Schematron spec to have good input from the community. My health and concentration is pretty good at the moment (ah the benefits of lockdown and unemployment!)
This could be anything:
- You have some pet idea about how to organize a good Open Standard.
- I always favour minimalism and code in standards. Particularly because I am not the least prolix writer.
- You have some diagrams or cartoons, or ideas for them.
- You have some text already that you think explains some things really well, that I can use.
- This might include outlines in slides
- You are happy to look over drafts online and make comments.
- Commenting will be open to the public without loging
- You want to participate as an actual writer of some sections, or as sub-editor, or as editor.
- This would involve getting a login. The PageSeeder editor is pretty obvious.
The first step, I think, is to come up with a TOC or organization. I think one page per element, each with the DTD line hyperlinked, and any Schematron schema assertions that apply.
(Does anyone know of software that creates a hyperlinked set of pages for a DTD or XSD or RELAX NG schema?)
Regards
Rick Jelliffe
