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

["Wendell Piez wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken,

Currently, the model for list requires one or more list-item elements. It
is the documentation that says two or more.

The docs don't make that kind of mistake when discussing, say, <p>
(<soCalled>Paragraph</soCalled>). :-)

But it's "just" an editorial problem, and doesn't seem to be stopping
anyone. :-)

Cheers, Wendell


On Wed, 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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