I have looked at this as part of my recent
review of the updated DFDL spec. My conclusions:
- The term 'DFDL property' applies to
all DFDL properties carried on any DFDL annotation. We should use it in
preference to 'attribute' even when an XML attribute is the only way that
a DFDL property may be specified. (This is in keeping with XML Schema,
where for example the 'name' property of a component is given by
an XML attribute representation 'name').
- Similarly, the term 'XSD property'
applies to all XML Schema properties, such as default, fixed, minOccurs,
maxOccurs, etc.
- The term 'format property' applies
to all DFDL properties carried on DFDL format annotations. (One could envisage
similar terms 'statement property' and 'defining property').
- The term 'representation property'
applies to all format properties that are used to describe grammar regions.
The revised grammar uses 'Rep' in grammar terms like SimpleElementEmptyRep
etc.
- The term 'non-representation property'
applies to all format properties that are not representation properties,
specifically dfdl:ref, dfdl:hiddenGroupRef, dfdl:elementId, dfdl:choiceBranchRef,
dfdl:inputValueCalc, dfdl:outputValueCalc, dfdl:escapeSchemeRef.
The one non-standard property is dfdl:escapeSchemeRef,
because it is a non-representation property yet can still be placed into
scope. All the other non-representation properties can not be placed into
scope. I am ok with that, it just means that whether a format property
is a non-representation property is decoupled from whether it can be placed
into scope or not, and should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Alternatively
we can say that dfdl:escapeSchemeRef is a representation property even
though it points at a defining annotation (and so is similar in this respect
to dfdl:prefixLengthType).
- dfdl:representation must be qualified
by the namepace prefix when referred to in the spec, and preferably either
preceded by 'property' or used on its own, rather than followed by 'property',
to avoid any ambiguity.
The term 'attribute' should be used
only when describing how a property is represented in XML terms.
Regards
Steve Hanson
Architect, Data Format Description Language (DFDL)
Co-Chair, OGF
DFDL Working Group
IBM SWG, Hursley, UK
smh@uk.ibm.com
tel:+44-1962-815848
From:
Steve Hanson/UK/IBM
To:
Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com>,
Cc:
dfdl-wg@ogf.org, dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org
Date:
29/01/2013 10:12
Subject:
Re: [DFDL-WG]
representation properties vs. format properties
We do have an actual problem in the
spec, as the term 'representation property' is being used to mean both
any DFDL property (other than 'ref') and also the property 'representation'.
This is best seen in Table 13.1.
However I am only seeing one example
of the term 'format property' - in section 24 ?
Regards
Steve Hanson
Architect, Data Format Description Language (DFDL)
Co-Chair, OGF
DFDL Working Group
IBM SWG, Hursley, UK
smh@uk.ibm.com
tel:+44-1962-815848
From:
Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com>
To:
dfdl-wg@ogf.org,
Date:
28/01/2013 18:27
Subject:
[DFDL-WG] representation
properties vs. format properties
Sent by:
dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org
We use both the terms representation property and format property extensively.
Do we want to declare these to mean the same thing as each other, or globally
replace one with the other.
--
Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | Tresys Technology | www.tresys.com
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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