WD-xml-blueberry-req-20010921 11.5 KB
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<h1 align="Center">XML Blueberry Requirements</h1>
<h2>W3C Working Draft 21 September 2001</h2>
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<dl>
<dt>This version:</dt>
  <dd><a class="loc" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-xml-blueberry-req-20010921">
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-xml-blueberry-req-20010921</a>
    </dd>
    <dt>Latest version:</dt>
      <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-blueberry-req">       http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-blueberry-req</a>
        </dd>
    <dt>Previous Version:</dt>
        <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-xml-blueberry-req-20010620">http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-xml-blueberry-req-20010620</a></dd>
        <dt>Editor: </dt>
          <dd><span class="name">John Cowan, Reuters </span><i> (<span class="email"><a href="mailto:jcowan@reutershealth.com">
    jcowan@reutershealth.com</a>
            </span>       )</i></dd>
            </dl>
            <p class="copyright"><a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice-20000612#Copyright">
     Copyright</a>
  &copy;2001 <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><abbr title="World Wide Web
    Consortium">
    W3C</abbr></a>
            <sup>&reg;</sup> (<a href="http://www.lcs.mit.edu/"><abbr title="Massachusetts Institute of
Technology">
    MIT</abbr></a>
 , <a href="http://www.inria.fr/"><abbr lang="fr" title="Institut National
de
    Recherche en Informatique et Automatique">
    INRIA</abbr></a>
 , <a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>
 ), All Rights  Reserved. W3C <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice-20000612#Legal_Disclaimer">
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    software licensing</a>
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            <h2 class="abstract">Abstract&nbsp;</h2>
            <p>This document lists the design principles and requirements
  for the Blueberry revision of the XML Recommendation, a limited revision
 of XML 1.0 being developed by the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Core Working
  Group solely to address character set issues.</p>
            </div>
            <div>
            <h2 class="status">Status of this document</h2>
            <p>This is a W3C Working Draft produced as a deliverable of the 
XML Core  WG according to its charter and the current <a href="/XML/">XML 
Activity</a>
  process. A list of current W3C working drafts and notes can be found at 
            <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR" class="loc">    http://www.w3.org/TR</a>
  .</p>
            <p>This document is a work in progress representing the current
  consensus of the W3C XML Core Working Group. It is published for review
by  W3C members and other interested parties. Publication as a Working Draft 
does not imply endorsement by the W3C membership. Comments should be sent 
to <a href="mailto:www-xml-blueberry-comments@w3.org" class="loc">    www-xml-blueberry-comments@w3.org</a>
 , which is an automatically and publicly   <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-xml-blueberry-comments/">
 archived email list</a>
 .</p>
            </div>
            <h2 class="table-of-contents">Table of Contents</h2>
            <dl class="table-of-contents">
            <dt>1.  <a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
              </dt>
              <dt>2.  <a href="#design-principles">Design Principles</a>
                </dt>
                <dt>3.  <a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
                  </dt>
                  <dt>4.  <a href="#references">References</a>
                    </dt>
                    </dl>
                    <div class="div1">
                    <h2><a name="intro">1.  Introduction</a>
                    </h2>
                    <p>The W3C's XML 1.0         Recommendation <a href="#rec-xml">
    [XML]</a>
  was first issued in 1998,         and despite the issuance of  many errata 
culminating in a Second Edition         of 2001, has remained (by intention) 
unchanged with respect to what is well-formed XML         and what is not. 
 This stability has been extremely useful for         interoperability.  However,
the Unicode Standard <a href="#rec-unicode"> [Unicode]</a>
  on which  XML 1.0 relies has not         remained static, evolving from 
version 2.0  to version 3.1.  Characters          present in Unicode 3.1 but
not in Unicode  2.0 may be used in XML         character data. &nbsp;However, 
they are not allowed in XML  names such as element type          names, attribute 
names, enumerated attribute values, processing instruction  targets, and so
on.  In         addition, some characters that should have  been permitted 
in XML names         were not, due to oversights and inconsistencies  in Unicode
2.0.</p>
                    <p>As a result, fully native-language XML         markup
  is not possible in <em>at least</em> the following languages:         
Amharic, Burmese,  Canadian aboriginal languages, Cherokee,  Dhivehi, Hakka
Chinese (Bopomofo script), Khmer, Minnan Chinese         (Bopomofo script),
Mongolian (traditional script), Oromo, Syriac, Tigre, and Yi, because the
characters required to write these languages did not exist in Unicode 2.0.&nbsp;
  In addition, Chinese (particularly as used in Hong Kong) and Japanese can
make use in XML names of         only a subset of their complete character
 repertoires.<br>
                    </p>
                    <p>The point has been made that many of these languages
can be written using other scripts, notably the Latin script, which makes<br>
transliterated native markup possible. &nbsp;However, exactly the same argument
applies to many languages (for example, Greek) that were already fully encoded
in Unicode 2.0. &nbsp;Discriminating against languages simply because their
scripts were not encoded in Unicode 2.0 is inherently unjust. &nbsp;In addition,
working with transliteration is far more painful for native readers and writers
than working with the native script.<br>
                    </p>
                    <p>In addition, XML 1.0 attempts to adapt to the line-end
  conventions         of various modern operating systems, but discriminates
  against the         conventions used on IBM and IBM-compatible mainframes.
&nbsp;As a result, XML documents on mainframes are not plain text files according
to the local conventions. &nbsp;XML 1.0         documents generated on mainframes
must either violate the   local         line-end conventions, or employ otherwise
unnecessary translation           phases before parsing and after generation.
&nbsp;Allowing straightforward interoperability is particularly important
when data stores are shared between mainframe and non-mainframe systems (as
opposed to being copied from one to the other).</p>
                    <p>A new XML version, rather than a set of errata to
XML 1.0, is being created because the change affects the definition of well-formed
 documents. &nbsp;XML 1.0 processors must continue to reject documents that
contain  new characters in XML names or new line-end conventions.  It is
presumed that the distinction between XML 1.0 and XML Blueberry will be indicated
by the XML declaration. </p>
                    </div>
                    <div class="div1">
                    <h2><a name="design-principles">2.  Design Principles</a>
                    </h2>
                    <ol>
                      <li>
                        <p>The XML 1.0 goals listed in section 1.1 of the
  XML             Recommendation are reaffirmed.</p>
                      </li>
                      <li>
                        <p> XML Blueberry documents shall permit the full
  and straightforward use of writing             systems supported by Unicode
3.1.  <br>
                        </p>
                      </li>
                      <li>
                        <p>XML Blueberry documents shall permit the full
and straightforward use of operating             environments that support
Unicode 3.1.</p>
                      </li>
                      <li>
                        <p>The changes required for XML 1.0 processors to
also   process XML Blueberry             shall be as few and as small as
  possible.</p>
                      </li>
                    </ol>
                    </div>
                    <div class="div1">
                    <h2><a name="requirements">3.  Requirements</a>
                    </h2>
                    <ol>
                      <li>
                        <p>XML Blueberry documents shall allow the use within
  XML names of all             Unicode 3.1 characters, insofar as appropriate
  for XML.                           </p>
                      </li>
                      <li>
                        <p>XML Blueberry documents shall support the line-end
  conventions             associated with Unicode 3.1, insofar as appropriate
  for XML.<br>
                        </p>
                      </li>
                      <li>
                        <p>The working group shall consider the issue of
future updates to             Unicode.</p>
                      </li>
                      <li>
                        <p>The working group shall consider the issue of
W3C normalization             as expressed in the W3C Character Model <a href="#charmod">
    [CharMod].</a>
                        </p>
                      </li>
                      <li>
                        <p>In creating XML Blueberry, the working group shall
  not consider any             revisions to XML 1.0 except those needed to
 accomplish these             requirements.</p>
                      </li>
                    </ol>
                    </div>
                    <div class="div1">
                    <h2><a name="references">4.  References</a>
                    </h2>
                    <dl>
                    <dt>CharMod</dt>
                      <dd><a name="charmod"></a>
 W3C (World Wide Web         Consortium). <i> Character Model for the World 
Wide Web</i> (work in         progress). [Cambridge, MA]. <code><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/charmod">
             http://www.w3.org/TR/charmod</a>
                        </code></dd>
                        <dt>XML</dt>
                          <dd><a name="rec-xml"></a>
 W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).   <i> Extensible         Markup Language 
(XML) Recommendation.</i> Version  1.0, 2nd         edition. [Cambridge, MA].
                            <code><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml">
            http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml</a>
                            </code></dd>
                            <dt>Unicode</dt>
                              <dd><a name="rec-unicode"></a>
 The Unicode Consortium.   <i> The Unicode         Standard, Version 3.1.</i>
  [Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley  Developers         Press, 2000]. <code><a href="http://www.unicode.org">
    http://www.unicode.org</a>
                                </code></dd>
                                </dl>
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