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[Eliot Kimber]

I'm not sure this is really a distinct case because "same" is not currently well defined for metadata, especially where multiple instances are allowed (e.g., <data>). For example, should two <data> elements with the same @name value be considered the same or different? Or said another way: the only way your new case 5 could make sense is if you can define, on a per-metadata-item-instance basis whether it replaces, defers to, or augments instances of the same item, where "sameness" may itself have to be defined on a per element-type basis. The 1.2 language is (and must continue to be) pretty fuzzy on this issue. It will be a task for 1.3 to try to make it less fuzzy. My guess would be that we need to add one or more new attributes to control the merging behavior and then expect specializers to set defaults so that the intent of the specialization designer is as clear as it can be. Cheers, Eliot On 9/1/09 11:36 PM, "Tony Self" </data></data>