On Wed, 25 Oct 2000, Andy Powell wrote:
>
> I don't agree with your definitions. I'm confused by what a 'schema'
> ('schema definition') can do - i.e. by what we see the term 'application
> profile' meaning over and above the term 'schema'. It doesn't seem
> helpful to use the term 'application profile' in a way that is synonymous
> with, or even overlapping with, 'schema' ?? So we have to be clear about
> what 'application profiles' give us over what we can already do using
> schemas! I hope this makes sense!
I need more time to look thro your whole posting but perhaps I can just
concentrate on this point in the mail.... which I would summarise as 'why
use the concept application profiles, as schemas can do all these things'.
I think this is also the argument Jane Hunter raised on dc-general some
months back [1].
My position is that an application profile is a type of schema. In my
original position paper I contrasted an application profile with a
'namespace schema'. The difference between the two is that an application
profile consists of elements drawn from other namespace schema (either a
sub-set of one namespace or a mix of elements from other namespaces) ,
whereas a namespace schema contains elements from one 'standard' which is
specified as a 'standard element set'.
I am interested in how far XML Schema and RDF schema languages can express
the requirements of such 'application profiles' and I think there is
potential for both to do so.
I think it is useful to use the term 'application profile' in order to
help implementors share information about their choice of elements,
hopefully to encourage implementors to re-use other 'application
profiles'.
But yes, an application profile is a particular sort of schema.
Rachel
1. http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/dc-general/2000-08/0036.html
2. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/app-profiles/
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Rachel Heery
UKOLN (UK Office for Library and Information Networking)
University of Bath tel: +44 (0)1225 826724
Bath, BA2 7AY, UK fax: +44 (0)1225 826838
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
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