[OSM-dev] XML Schema

[Hugh Barnes]

[sorry, Frederik, this was meant for the list…]

On Saturday 08 November 2008, 21:17:44, Frederik Ramm did write:
> Hi,
> 
> Hugh Barnes wrote:
> > I thought I saw a page some time ago which had a DTD in it, and someone 
> > suggested we use RELAX NG instead to define the content model. 
> 
> All this is nice and might come in helpful for people starting with OSM, 
> but it has to be remembered that currently anything you write could be 
> in human language for all we care since neither servers nor clients 
> actually use any kind of validation against any kind of coded schema.
> 
> So whatever you write is really only aimed at human beings wanting to 
> understand the format/structure; the servers and clients might get out 
> of sync with that at any time without anyone noticing.
> 
> Sorry if this was only stating the obvious but I have met people in the 
> past who said, in disbelief, "but how can the server issue THIS when the 
> DTD says THAT"? And I said, well, the server doesn't even know the DTD.
> 

Oh, that's insane. Such a powerful tool. You're stating the opposite of 
obvious … obvious would be that you use the DTD to validate against. What kind 
of validation exists?

Cheers