Schema versioning with errata

[Brian Major]

Hi Markus

On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 5:23 AM Markus Demleitner <
msdemlei at ari.uni-heidelberg.de> wrote:

> Hi Brian,
>
> On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 11:13:16AM -0700, Brian Major wrote:
> > > Here's what I've done and how I propose to go on:
> > >
> > > (a) I changed the version attribute on the root of the schema file to
> > >     "1.1+Erratum-1"
> > ...
> >
> > > Here's my reasoning:
> > >
> > > (a) is because people should be able to work out the "patchlevel" of
> > > the schema.  When Erratum-3 is being applied, the version would
> > > be 1.1+Erratum-1+Erratum-3.  Yes, that could potentially get long,
> > > but since not many people will have too look at it, that's probably
> > > acceptable.
> > >
> >
> > Hmm, would we ever have a XSD posted that did not take into account
> > accepted errata?  If we did then I'd probably consider it a mistake made
> by
> > the working group.
>
> Well, first off, many errata do not influence the schema at all.  If
> the schema doesn't change, /@version IMHO shouldn't change at all.
>

Yes, I see and agree.


>
>          -- Markus
>
> (who suddenly wonders if this actually a reply to your remark.  If it
> isn't, apologies, and could you try making me see your point again?)
>

I'm guess I'm wondering what the use cases are for determining the 'patch
level' of a schema.  A common pattern would be something like:
- someone builds an implementation against a schema for some version of a
standard
- an error is discovered which affects the schema so an erratum is
published and the schema file updated
- the implementor notices the erratum (which says it has affects on the
schema) so, to fix the implementation, he/she acquires the updated schema
file.

There are probably many other ways that could fall out, but I'm not
convinced (yet) that we need to have metadata about the patch level within
the schema file itself.  Although this is admittedly somewhat flimsy, there
is the submission log on the schema page that would allow people to see if
there are updates.

Cheers,
Brian
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