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

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

Ken, I too apologize, I just said what Tommie said!

I am experiencing strange latency with email. Hm.

Regards, Wendell

On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 7:27b/AM G. Ken Holman g.ken.holman@xxxxxxxxx <
jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Ah ... I understood from the initial post in the thread:
>
>
>
https://www.biglist.com/lists/lists.mulberrytech.com/jats-list/archives/20251
2/msg00014.html
> >The definition of lists in
> >https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library/1.4/element/list.html
> states
> >that they are sequences "of two or more items, which may or may not be
> >ordered".
>
> What I missed later in the post was the suggestion that the DTD be changed
> to reflect that.
>
> >do you think it's possible that sooner or
> >later the DTD may get changed to align with the description?
>
> My bad. I thought it was changing the description that was being
> considered as a breaking change, not changing the DTD. Which, of course,
> would be.
>
> I apologize for the expended bandwidth.
>
> At 18/12/2025 02:30 +0000, Tommie Usdin btusdin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> >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 9:12C"b,B/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
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Contact info, blog, articles, etc. http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/j/ |
> >> Check our site for free XML, XSLT, XSL-FO and UBL developer resources |
> >> Streaming hands-on XSLT/XPath 2 training class @US$50 (5 hours free!) |
> >> Essays (UBL, XML, etc.) http://www.linkedin.com/today/author/gkholman |
> >>
> >>
> >
> >======================================================================
> >B. Tommie Usdin mailto:btusdin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Mulberry Technologies, Inc. https://www.mulberrytech.com
>
> >----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Mulberry Technologies, Inc.: A Consultancy Specializing in XML for Prose
> Documents
> >======================================================================
> >
>
>
> --
> Contact info, blog, articles, etc. http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/j/ |
> Check our site for free XML, XSLT, XSL-FO and UBL developer resources |
> Streaming hands-on XSLT/XPath 2 training class @US$50 (5 hours free!) |
> Essays (UBL, XML, etc.) http://www.linkedin.com/today/author/gkholman |
>
>
>

--
...Wendell Piez... ...wendellpiez.com...
...pellucidliterature.org... ...pausepress.org... ...github.com/wendellpiez.
..