RE: Getting Back to Basics - How to describe Dates and Times andEvents?

[Todd Boyle <tboyle@rosehill.net>]

Yes, as you said, I drop all of the specifically-named 
date and accounting period elements from my General Ledger 
schema... and substitute the following model:

<transactionDate>
  <qualifier>AnyEdifact2005qualifier</qualifier>      (optional)
  <date>yyyy-mm-dd</date>       (required)    
  <time>hh:mm:ss</date>         (optional)
  <timezone>zz</timezone>       (optional)
<transactionDate>

The principle of avoiding specifically-named elements applies 
in numerous other places in a GL schema.  For example you would
avoid elements like "invoiceNumber", "poNumber", etc. and instead,
use something like Edifact 1153 strings,

<docRef>
  <docType>Invoice</docType>       (required)  
  <docNum>ABC-12345</docNum>       (required)  
</docRef>

And 

<code>
  <codeList>DUNS</codeList>              (required)  
  <codeValue>999999999</codeValue>       (required)  
</code>

On the other hand, if you want adoption by small developers,
the basic framework around these meta-meta structures must
be clean and easy. 

For the record there is a good argument on this exact topic,
http://www.xedi.org/presentations/ebxml/sld016.htm

(I am not necessarily promoting their 1999 solution however.)
http://www.xedi.org/presentations/ebxml/sld025.htm  

Sue Probert's report on Pharos http://www.edipro.no/pharname.htm last 
year is helpful, as is Sintef report on Pharos.  
http://lists.ebxml.org/archives/ebxml-core/200008/pdf00000.pdf

Hope this helps somebody.  And, any comments on my three objects
would be most welcome.

Todd