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Bug 2770 - Usage of 'datatype' vs. 'simple type (definition)' needs review
Summary: Usage of 'datatype' vs. 'simple type (definition)' needs review
Status: CLOSED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: XML Schema
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Structures: XSD Part 1 (show other bugs)
Version: 1.1 only
Hardware: PC Windows XP
: P2 major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
QA Contact: XML Schema comments list
URL:
Whiteboard: terminology cluster
Keywords: resolved
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2006-01-26 12:15 UTC by Henry S. Thompson
Modified: 2010-11-10 17:41 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Henry S. Thompson 2006-01-26 12:15:20 UTC
Our revision of Part 2 has arrived at a reasonably clear distinction between
these two concepts.

Part 1 did not, historically, make much distinction between the two.  We should
survey all uses of either phrase in Part 1, and make sure their usage agrees
with the new usage in Part 2.
Comment 1 Dave Peterson 2006-01-26 13:38:27 UTC
"simple type (definition)" worries me slightly.  We certainly have datatypes, and Simple Type Definitions, 
and they are certainly different.  Each Simple type Definition selects a datatype and associates with it at 
least a name and a position in the "construction" hierarchy.  I suppose a "simple type" might be construed 
as, perhaps, the triple of name, hierarchy position, and datatype, but we have not defined the term 'simple 
type' and have been careful (I hope) not to use it in Part 2.
Comment 2 C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 2009-08-22 15:07:04 UTC
I have now reviewed all of the instances of the term 'datatype' in the
Structures spec, and as many occurrences of the string 'simple type'
as patience would allow; I have found no instances of either which
seem to me to require change.

There were numerous places where Structures seemed to me to be
playing a little fast and loose with the intensional/extensional 
distinction which I understand to be the point of having the two
terms, but in all those cases Structures proved to be following the 
usage of the Datatypes spec.  So there may be a weakness in our
usage of the distinction (if there is a reliable distinction to be 
made), but no inconsistency between the specs that I have detected.

Accordingly I propose that we close this issue as FIXED.  

Others with a finer nose for semantic inconsistencies are welcome 
to examine the spec and propose changes to the text if they wish.
Comment 3 David Ezell 2010-11-10 17:41:13 UTC
The WG reported this bug as FIXED on 2009-09-04.  We are closing this bug
as requiring no futher work.  If there are issues remaining, you can reopen
this bug and enter a comment to indicate the problem.  Thanks very much for the
feedback.