Re: [EXTERNAL] [jats-list] Lists with a single item are valid, will they always be?

["Tommie Usdin btusdin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken --

If I understood the suggestion, it was to change the rule from one-or-more TO
two-or-more. That would make any documents with one item lists invalid, and is
thus non-backwards-compatible.

-- Tommie

> On Dec 17, 2025, at 9:12b/PM, G. Ken Holman g.ken.holman@xxxxxxxxx
<jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> At 17/12/2025 14:05 +0000, Randall, Laura (NIH/NLM/NCBI) [E]
laura.randall@xxxxxxx wrote:
>> IF it was to ever happen, it would have to be (as Pieter said) in a
non-backward-compatible release.
>> ...
>> From: Pieter Lamers pieter.lamers@xxxxxxxxxxxx
<jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 7:51 AM
>> I don't think anyone is going to forbid this, as it would be a major
breaking change. I guess the standard case of a list is to contain multiple
items.
>
> I am unclear how changing a list from two-or-more items to one-or-more items
is a breaking change from a data perspective.
>
> If the edict comes down, any existing list of two-or-more items satisfies
the new specification of one-or-more items.
>
> Or do you mean breaking from an application's perspective of expecting two
or more and being presented with only one and not being able to handle such?
>
> Is backwards compatibility in JATS measured by the applications, by the
data, or by both?
>
> In our Universal Business Language (UBL) modeling, we've only been measuring
backward compatibility of the data and not of the applications. For example,
every theoretical valid instance of, say, UBL 2.3, is guaranteed to be a valid
instance of UBL 2.4 and all subsequent releases of new schemas in the 2.x
branch. We say nothing of the applications that process UBL.
>
> . . . . . . Ken
>
>
> --
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>
>

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B. Tommie Usdin mailto:btusdin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. https://www.mulberrytech.com
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