future of DocBook XML Schema (XSD)?

Bob Stayton <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.text.docbook.misc,gmane.text.docbook.apps
Message-ID <[email protected]>
The DocBook Technical Committee is considering dropping the XML Schema 
version of DocBook in a future version 6.  We would like to hear from 
any members of the DocBook community who would be affected by this change.

Let me be clear that this change is not on the horizon, but part of our 
long term planning.  The DocBook TC takes great care in maintaining 
backwards compatibility on point releases because we know how much the 
DocBook community relies on stable sources.  When DocBook rolls to a new 
major version number, we treat that as an opportunity to introduce 
changes that are not backwards compatible.  The change from 4 to 5 was 
such.  If we foresee such changes coming, we give the DocBook community 
very advanced notice to prepare for them.

We will continue to maintain the DocBook standard in RelaxNG with 
Schematron rules, and will continue to generate a compatible DTD.

However, the process of maintaining the XSD version of DocBook is 
proving burdensome because it cannot be completely generated by a 
conversion program, and requires manual tweaking.  Because we are not 
sure if anyone is actually using the XSD version, we are wondering if 
this is worth the effort.  If you are using it, or have tools that 
depend on XSD, please let us know.

You can reply directly to me if you don't want to discuss it on the 
mailing list.

-- 
Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
[email protected]
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