ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34N0898cvr

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34

Information Technology --
Document Description and Processing Languages

TITLE:	Cover letter to ITTF for FCD ballot for ISO/IEC 19757-9: Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL) Part 9 - Namespace- and datatype-aware DTDs
SOURCE:	Mr. Francis Cave
PROJECT:	FCD 19757-9: Information technology - Document Schema Definition Languages (DSDL) - Part 9: Datatype- and namespace-aware DTDs
PROJECT EDITOR:	Mr. Francis Cave
STATUS:	FCD cover letter
ACTION:	For ITTF notification of FCD/PDAM ballot
DATE:	2007-08-05
DISTRIBUTION:	SC34 and Liaisons
REFER TO:	N0898 - 2007-08-05 - Text for FCD ballot for ISO/IEC 19757-9: Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL) Part 9 - Namespace- and datatype-aware DTDs
REPLY TO:	Dr. James David Mason (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Chairman) Y-12 National Security Complex Bldg. 9113, M.S. 8208 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8208 U.S.A. Telephone: +1 865 574-6973 Facsimile: +1 865 574-1896 Network: masonjd@y12.doe.gov http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/ ftp://ftp.y12.doe.gov/pub/sgml/sc34/ Mr. G. Ken Holman (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Secretariat - Standards Council of Canada) Crane Softwrights Ltd. Box 266, Kars, ON K0A-2E0 CANADA Telephone: +1 613 489-0999 Facsimile: +1 613 489-0995 Network: jtc1sc34@scc.ca http://www.jtc1sc34.org

JTC 1 Directives Section 12.6.2.1

The SC Secretariat distributes the CD (see Form G5). For an FCD (see Form G7), the Secretariat also forwards the FCD to ITTF for notification of availability to other NBs and organisations in liaison for information and comments. The introductory note should indicate, as appropriate, the sources used as a basis for the proposal and the background and aim of the proposal. The note should include among other things:

• The date when the work item was introduced into the programme of work;
• Identification of the original proposer; and
• Extent of liaison with other internal and external organisations.

Introductory note accompanying FCD 19727-9

The need for Part 9 of ISO 19757 emerged as a result of requirement analysis for Document Schema Description Languages. It was noted that many people were still using Document Type Declarations (DTDs), using a W3C-defined subset of the constructs defined in ISO 8879:1986 Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) to constrain the structure of XML documents. Since other parts of the XML family of standards, such as the XML Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) make use of W3C specifications for the definition of datatypes and namespaces, members of BSI IST/41 asked whether it would be possible to incorporate these features into DTDs to avoid the need to rewrite existing DTDs in accordance with the complex W3C XML Schema specification. When the work was initially started at the end of 2001 a period of consultation with members of the UK publishing community, ISUG, the International SGML/XML Users Group, and users of XML DTDs, was started to identify user requirements and to discuss possible solutions of these requirements. Following publication of an initial CD in the end of 2004 the proposed concepts were discussed within the XML community. A significant redraft resulting from these discussions is now being forwarded for national body approval.

Francis Cave,
Editor, ISO/IEC 19757-9