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 -- dfdl-wg mailing list dfdl-wg@ogf.org https://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 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