Re[2]: OCSP-X vs SCVP

[Timothy Fisher <timothyf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Agreed there are currrently competing "schema/DTD" like efforts...
But this is exactly where standards would help...   These issues
could certainly be addressed within PKI standards documents that were
based on XML.

-- 
Sincerely,
 Timothy Fisher                       mailto:timothyf@mindspring.com



Friday, November 10, 2000, 10:34:29 PM, you wrote:



PHG> Rich Salz wrote:
>> 
>> > Agreed, we are talking about XML vs DER.
>> 
>> I don't think so.  I think it's XML "versus" ASN.1 and DER: the whole system.

PHG> Well, if you're talking of politics I agree. 
PHG> But if you only consider the technical aspects
PHG> then XML (markup) is only a textual transfer
PHG> syntax and DER is a binary transfer syntax.

>> 
>> With the advent of XML-Schema, there is now an XML datatype description
>> language that supports complex types (struct), constraints, inheritance, etc.
>> (It's an interesting combination of pragmatism -- constraints can be expressed
>> as Perl regular expressions -- and elegance: an XML schema follows XML syntax
>> and is therefore a valid XML document.)

PHG> If there were but one XML schema life would 
PHG> be easy. But there are many XML schema, and 
PHG> more seem to be popping up in various XML
PHG> communities.

PHG> Currently, there are communities that wish 
PHG> to use only XML markup and those that wish to
PHG> use XML markup with DTDs (which carry only
PHG> the structure component on ASN.1 notation,
PHG> but no data type or constraint information).

PHG> Then there are those relying on XML-schema
PHG> and those betting on some earlier schema
PHG> like derivative like BizTalk, and others in
PHG> the process of building DT4-DTDs (Data Types
PHG> for DTDs), etc.

PHG> As for constraint capabilities, ASN.1 has just
PHG> adopted a PATTERN constraint, which is used in
PHG> X9.68:

PHG> DNSName ::= VisibleString (SIZE(1..MAX)) 
PHG>                (PATTERN "[A-Za-z0-9 .-]*")

PHG> There are several contraints available in ASN.1 
PHG> that have no counterpart in XML-schema. And XML
PHG> schema is still under development, with notable
PHG> changes made just recently to accommodate the 
PHG> XMLDSIG efforts.

>> I can see that XER is of interest to ASN.1 folks, but I dont' see any real
>> interest from the XML development community.  It's useful to perserve existing
>> legacy (sic) ASN.1 definitions, but XML folks who want to describe data will
>> use DTD's and schema's.  (If only because the specifications are free.)  I
>> strongly believe the XML community will not enlarge the ASN.1 community.
>>         /r$

PHG> Agreed. Free specifications are an important 
PHG> consideration. The X.500 Group and the ASN.1 
PHG> group are both working to have the current 
PHG> ASN.1 specifications made free. Of course, 
PHG> the ones that are being relied upon by the 
PHG> IETF are already freely available.

PHG> Phil
PHG> ----
PHG> Phillip H. Griffin      Griffin Consulting
PHG> http://asn-1.com        Secure ASN.1 Design & Implementation
PHG> +1-919-832-7008         1625 Glenwood Avenue, Five Points
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