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Bug 4907 - The infoset is not a data structure and not an API
Summary: The infoset is not a data structure and not an API
Status: RESOLVED LATER
Alias: None
Product: XML Schema
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Structures: XSD Part 1 (show other bugs)
Version: 1.0/1.1 both
Hardware: Macintosh All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
QA Contact: XML Schema comments list
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Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2007-08-02 01:35 UTC by C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Modified: 2007-08-03 18:29 UTC (History)
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Description C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 2007-08-02 01:35:28 UTC
In section 3.16.3, the Schema Representation Constraint:
QName Interpretation reads in part:

    In the absence of the [in-scope namespaces] property in 
    the infoset for the schema document in question, processors 
    must reconstruct equivalent information as necessary, 
    using the [namespace attributes] of the containing element 
    information item and its ancestors.

This formulation reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of
the nature of information sets, which we should neither retain
in our spec nor encourage in others.  The [in-scope namespaces]
property and the [namespace attributes] property of the basic
infoset are not names for different fields in a data structure;
the former is merely a different name for a subset of the
information present in the latter.  It is not only not
necessary to "reconstruct the equivalent information", if
[namespace attributes] is present, but it is not possible
for the information of [namespace attributes] to be present
without the information of [in-scope namespaces] being
present.

The existing text would make sense if the infoset spec were
the description of a data structure, or of an API.  It is
neither.

The paragraph in question should be deleted.
Comment 1 C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 2007-08-03 18:29:33 UTC
On its telcon today, the Working Group discussed this and other
recently opened issues in the issues database and concluded (not
without some pangs of regret) that for scheduling reasons it is not
feasible for us to resolve this issue, or any of the others in the
group, before we go to Last Call.

On whether the issue / proposal discussed here is worth pursuing or
not, the WG has taken no formal decision. Accordingly I am closing
this issue with a disposition of LATER, not WONTFIX.  That means the
Working Group believes that the issue may be resolved in some future
version of the spec, and encourages whatever Working Groups are
responsible for future versions of the spec to consider this issue
at an appropriate time.  (If this bug relates both to 1.0 and 1.1,
this resolution applies only to 1.1 and leaves undetermined how to
handle it vis-a-vis 1.0.)