Mike I think I prefer that the element overrides the type even though it will look odd for in-line types. However I don't agree with your semantics for complexTypes. Wouldn't ' Override before scoping' be simpler and more consistent. That is, the element overrides the complexType but not the content. Otherwise you cannot have a 'local' override for an in-scope property. For your example <complexType dfdl:encoding="ebcdic"> ... <element name="x" dfdl:encoding="ascii"> <complexType> <sequence dfdl:separator="," dfdl:encoding="ebcdic"> ... <sequence dfdl:separator="|"> ... The "," would be ebcdic and the "|" would be ascii Alan Powell MP 211, IBM UK Labs, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, England Notes Id: Alan Powell/UK/IBM email: alan_powell@uk.ibm.com Tel: +44 (0)1962 815073 Fax: +44 (0)1962 816898 From: "Mike Beckerle" <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com> To: <dfdl-wg@ogf.org> Date: 13/05/2009 22:25 Subject: [DFDL-WG] elements and combining properties with their types I spent some real time thinking about this issue today. Attached is a memo on the subject which is big enough that I didn't want to just make it an email body. Summary: I think current 034 semantics are broken and should be fixed along the lines of the element - overrides - type principle. The example in the scoping section is not right. But the issue has some depth to it. E.g., I think the grammar productions are broken currently and we need to fix those also. See attached. ...mike Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL WG Co-Chair | CTO | Oco, Inc. Tel: 781-810-2125 | 100 Fifth Ave., 4th Floor, Waltham MA 02451 | mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com [attachment "elements-and-types.doc" deleted by Alan Powell/UK/IBM] -- dfdl-wg mailing list dfdl-wg@ogf.org http://www.ogf.org/mailman/listinfo/dfdl-wg Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU