Re: [xml-dev] Preoccupation with zero, empty strings, empty elements, empty everything
On Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 1:10 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
-- http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#S-EMPTY-ELEMENTS
"UBL takes the position that empty elements do not provide the level
of assurance necessary for business information exchanges and
therefore must not be used."
... and have reduced the requirement to the following rules:
[IND5] UBL conformant instance documents MUST NOT contain an
element devoid of content or containing null values,
except in the case of extension, where the UBL
ExtensionContent element is used.
The full rationale doesn't seem to exclude the use of inherently empty elements (those with a content model of EMPTY) that have attributes, yet the rule does.
[IND6] The absence of a construct or data in a UBL instance
document MUST NOT carry meaning.
In that case, how does one express the notions "data unavailable" and "data does not exist" in UBL?
GMail doesn't have rotating .sigs, but you can see mine at http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/signatures