[tei-council] Datatype : roundup

[James Cummings]

Lou Burnard wrote:
>>> [some debate is needed on how we define this: syd's original
>>> proposal suggested we should support only the W3C rather restricted
>>> version of regexps, i.e. the pattern has to be "anchored". Is that
>>> OK, or are we supporting apache-style perl-compatible regexps? or
>>> just the original syntax built into grep (but not egrep)?]
>>
>> We initially went with W3C some 2 or 3 years ago using the (perhaps
>> flawed) logic that it was a regular expression language that any XML
>> software would have to know in order to support the W3C Schema
>> "pattern" facet anyway.
> 
> Well, as one who has done a lot of programming in various 
> pattern-matching languages, I think the characterization is not VERY 
> misleading. But it hardly matters... I am quite happy for us to stick 
> with the W3C regexp language if others agree, for the good pragmatic 
> reason given above, provided that we make explicit what its shortcomings 
> are.

I don't know the differences between the various regexp standards out there, but 
on the face of it sounds like a good idea to stick to W3C in this regard.  A 
quick trawl round the  XSLT2 spec shows that its regex's seem to be (as one 
would expect) based on the XPath2, which bases them on those in W3C Schema.  So 
that at least looks like some consistency, and I didn't notice any big warning 
signs, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.

>>> c. add a pattern to the list of alternatives proposed for
>>> tei.data.temporal which supports right-truncated times (just don't
>>> say i didnt tell you it'll all end in tears)
>> OK, I won't say that. But what do you think could happen to make it
>> end in tears?
> (a) difficulties in implementation
> (b) confusion caused by lack of timezone information

Is there any sensible way to add timezone information to right-truncated times?

Although it bothers me, I think in the end I'd be willing to add :00 for seconds 
to any time recorded, if I were indeed recording times.

-James