Abstract
This thesis is about relations between schema languages for XML. A schema language
is a formal definition of the syntax of an XML language and is used to check validity of
a given XML document. There exists a variety of schema languages mainly developed
around 2000. During the last six years some of the languages have matured and become
either W3C or ISO standards, some have stabilized and some have vanished. Most of the
languages have been stable in terms of language features during the last three years.
Due to the stability of the schema languages, it is a good moment in time to take a
step back and try to see the overall perspective of schema languages; for schema language
designers to learn from the existing experiences and for schema language users to learn
the strengths and weaknesses of the individual languages and so be better qualified the
choose the right language for a given application.
Revealing relations between six state of the art schema languages for XML, DTD, XML
Schema, Schematron, DSD2, RELAX NG, and Summary Graphs, gives a good insight into
the various perspectives of schema languages. The relations will be revealed using a twofold
approach: first, we present a thorough feature-based comparison of schema languages
and second, we present and investigate translations between the schema languages. This
strategy gives us a strong basis from which we can point out the strengths and weaknesses
of each language and conclude that the all-optimal schema language has yet to come.
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