This section of the spec seems wrong: 14.1 Empty Sequences A sequence having no children is syntactically legal in DFDL. In the data stream, such a sequence can have non-zero length LeftFraming and RightFraming regions, but the SequenceContent region in between must be empty. It is a processing error if the SequenceContent region of an empty sequence has non-zero length when parsing. XML schema does not define an empty sequence that is the content model of a complex type definition as effective content so any DFDL annotations on such a construct would be ignored. It is a schema definition error if the empty sequence is the content model of a complex type, or if a complex type has nothing in its content model at all. This seems like it is both legal and useful: <complexType name="headerRowType"> <sequence dfdl:initiator="name%WSP+;address%WSP+;phone" dfdl:terminator="%NL"/> </complexType> So the statement, DFDL annotations on such a construct would be ignored, is not right. And also a complexType sequence might actually have content via dfdl:hiddenGroupRef. <complexType name="hiddenGroupType"> <sequence dfdl:hiddenGroupRef="myHiddenGroup"/> </complexType> So the statement that the region in-between left and right framing must be empty is also not right. Comments? -- Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | Tresys Technology | www.tresys.com