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Bug 3587 - Possibly confusing examples of decimal numbers
Summary: Possibly confusing examples of decimal numbers
Status: CLOSED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: XML Schema
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Datatypes: XSD Part 2 (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All All
: P3 minor
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
QA Contact: XML Schema comments list
URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#dec...
Whiteboard: thimble, easy; do-it cluster
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2006-08-08 14:45 UTC by Adam Bowen
Modified: 2007-09-18 09:16 UTC (History)
0 users

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Description Adam Bowen 2006-08-08 14:45:31 UTC
In section 3.2.3.1 there are some examples given of decimal numbers:

--quote--
decimal has a lexical representation consisting of a finite-length sequence of decimal digits (#x30-#x39) separated by a period as a decimal indicator. An optional leading sign is allowed. If the sign is omitted, "+" is assumed. Leading and trailing zeroes are optional. If the fractional part is zero, the period and following zero(es) can be omitted. For example: -1.23, 12678967.543233, +100000.00, 210.
--end quote--

The final number shown as an example, 210, is followed immediately by the full stop punctuation mark which could be perceived as a decimal point.  I know this is fairly trivial, but I think perhaps a different layout should be used when giving examples of mathematical notation which is free from grammatical punctuation.  In the actual HTML source code the examples are surrounded by 'code' tags and the final full stop is outside of these, but when rendered by browsers it is difficult to perceive.
Comment 1 Dave Peterson 2006-08-10 01:21:13 UTC
(In reply to comment #0)
> In section 3.2.3.1 there are some examples given of decimal numbers:

> The final number shown as an example, 210, is followed immediately by the full
> stop punctuation mark which could be perceived as a decimal point.

Since these are lexical representations, they are character strings and should be
so marked; this will enclose each string in single quotes (or whatever other
notation for "mentioning" strings we might change to).  The old markup from 1.0
hasn't gotten updated yet.  This bug report will insure we don't miss it.
Comment 2 Dave Peterson 2006-12-01 18:28:09 UTC
The "numbers" in 3.2.3.1 are numerals--character strings--and are to be marked up as <string>s in the XML.
Comment 3 Dave Peterson 2007-04-05 15:53:06 UTC
The same problem occurs in the descriptions of float and double; I will correct it there as well.
Comment 4 Dave Peterson 2007-04-06 12:54:10 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> The same problem occurs in the descriptions of float and double; I will correct
> it there as well.

Oops!  The problem appears in float and double only in 1.0, not in 1.1.
Comment 5 C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 2007-09-18 00:45:22 UTC
The change proposed above was approved by the WG in its call of 
1 December 2006.  It is now reflected in the status quo version 
of the Datatypes spec.  Accordingly, I am setting the disposition of 
this issue to RESOLVED / FIXED.

If the originator of the issue would examine the change and let 
us know whether it satisfactorily resolves the problem or not, 
we'd be grateful.   To signal that the resolution is acceptable, 
change the status of the issue to CLOSED.  Otherwise, to signal 
that it's NOT acceptable, change the status to REOPENED (and 
tell us what's wrong).

If we don't hear from you in the next three weeks, we'll assume 
that silence betokens consent, and close the issue ourselves.  
Comment 6 Adam Bowen 2007-09-18 09:16:42 UTC
The solution sounds satisfactory, although if I were to nitpick I would say that the single quote character is easily confused with the prime symbol that is used to represent feet.  It would be better to hang the examples out in space away from everything, so it would render like:

... If the fractional part is zero, the period and following zero(es) can be omitted. For example:  

    -1.23
    12678967.543233
    +100000.00
    210

The decimal Lexical Representation ...

This would leave no room for misinterpretation.  However, this bug was raised with regard to the decimal point/full stop confusion which has been rectified (although I can not find a newer version of the XML Schema spec that includes the new rendering (the example in http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema11-2/#decimal under 3.3.3.1 still renders the same)), and so I will close this bug.