-----Original Message-----
From: Eve
L. Maler [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002
4:47 PM
Cc:
Subject: Re:
[ubl-ndrsc] [Fwd: Global attributes]
> Dear all
> we need to decide on whether global
attributes should be named or
> declared any differently to local
ones.
>
> Right now I don't see the need. Gunther suggested all
global attributes are
> defined in the attribute UidAttributeGroup.
Currently, only uid, uidRef,
> uidRefs and xs:language are global right
now.
I think we may have a problem in saying that we'll name
global
attributes like local attributes, since we say we'll name
local
attributes as if they were elements, and (except for top-level
elements)
these are named as properties of an object class. Just like
top-level
elements, global elements nominally don't have an object
class.
[Burcham,
Bill] Do we need to separate the discussion into a) the attribute
name and b) the dictionary entry name for the attribute? I believe Eve is
talking about (b) here. So, my take is that if we choose to make
attributes global then their dictionary entry names might simply
be:
attributeName
[Burcham, Bill] (as
opposed to ObjectClass.attributeName) Making the dictionary entries for
attributes global means they can "clash" with our type names (object
classes). That is, from the perspective of the data dictionary, attribute names
and (complex) type names will be represented in the same (global)
namespace.
As for the attribute name itself
(issue a) I don't think we have any such issue of name clashes because I believe
that global attributes are in a separate namespace-thingy from global types,
i.e. you can have a global attribute and a global type of the same name without
ambiguity. (I used the term namespace-thingy because the XSD spec calls it
something other than 'namespace' for obvious
reasons).
I don't think it would be
*hard* to figure out names for global
attributes, but our naming advice so
far is insufficient to explain how
to do it.
[Burcham,
Bill] <munch>
Eve
--
Eve
Maler
+1 781 442 3190
Sun Microsystems XML Technology Center
eve.maler @ sun.com
