Talk:RIM ITS Specification

Canonical Representation

The topic of canonical forms came up in some discussions that I've had with others regarding the micro-ITS. The need for a canonical form of a representation is important in certain applications such as digital signatures and generation of automated mappings. The quesion I have is what should the canonical form be for the RIM-ITS?

Attributes of a Canonical Form

In my own explorations of canonical form, I've come up with a few principles:

A canonical form is complete. A reader of the canonical form is not required to make assumptions about the content. White space typically used to ensure document readability is NOT present. Sequences of elements that can appear in any order have a defined canonical order (e.g., alphabetical by element name). Sequences of NMTOKENS, ENTITIES or IDREFS in an attribute that can appear in any order have a defined canonical order. When an object can be represented by value and by reference, the canonical form must specify which representation should be chosen and if ID/IDREF is to be used, how they are to be generated.