Comments on latest packaging spec

[Dick Brooks <dick@8760.com>]

I've received the following feedback from ebXML's "weekend warriors":

There are incorrect values ("ebxml") for the type attribute on pages
8,11&14. The correct value is "application/vnd.eb+xml". I've made these
changes and will issue an updated spec with these corrections.

There has been some discussion over the choice of iso-8859-1 as the default
character set for the charset attribute in the Message Envelope Content-type
header. It was pointed out that several XML related specifications recommend
using the UTF-8 or UTF-16 character sets.

Note: Implementers are free to use and support ANY character set that's
appropriate to their needs. In other words, the ebXML packaging spec doesn't
limit the use of charset. The use to iso-8859-1 as a "default" is intended
to provide a common "baseline" level of character set support expected from
ebXML software implementers.

Given our close alignment with XML, should the ebXML packaging spec be
changed to use one of the UTF-* character sets as the default, instead of
the iso-8859-1 character set?

Thanks to all who provided feedback.


Dick Brooks
Group 8760
110 12th Street North
Birmingham, AL 35203
dick@8760.com
205-250-8053
Fax: 205-250-8057
http://www.8760.com/

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