StandardsRegExt: links to schemas

[Mark Taylor]

On Mon, 20 Feb 2012, Ray Plante wrote:

> Hi Mark,
> 
> (Note that as a registry "insider", I'm more ready to accept to accept 
> your "outsider" opinion than my own, so this discussion is meant to 
> tease out the essentials.)

while attempting to avoid us both falling over backwards to agree
with each other - you've probably got more different perspectives
than me on the reg, I tend to just do one thing with it.

> On Mon, 20 Feb 2012, Mark Taylor wrote:
> > I'm a bit confused then (quite common when I'm discussing topics
> > with the word "schema" in).  What schema(s) would be referenced
> > in a registry record like this?  As you say this standard doesn't 
> > define a schema.  
> 
> Imagine a stylesheet-rendered version of the example given in section 
> 3.1.1, the record for the StandardsRegExt standard which includes the 
> links to the schema and examples.  
> 
> > The examples are very useful, but given that, they
> > should be (and in this case are) in the human-readable standard 
> > document, or at least linked from it.
> > Further, it's much easier to give context to the examples if they
> > are approached from the human-readable document than simply referenced
> > from a registry record.
> 
> These schemas and examples embedded in the spec documents have not 
> typically been available as links to separate, electronic versions, 
> but I suppose they could have.  

OK well I agree that it's a Good Thing for people to be able to
access both schema and examples easily.  I would have thought that a
(free-form, long) standards document is a better place for that
sort of thing than a (formal, terse) registry record, but if registry
insiders think it's appropriate to have it inside the registry,
I wouldn't argue against it on the grounds of general desirability
(after all having it in the registry record doesn't preclude it from
appearing in standards documents too).

> That said, I get your point that the there is not necessarily a strong 
> need to add links to schemas and examples in the record, particularly 
> at this time in the review process. 

--
Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/