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Proposal: 1) Deprecate the builtin simple types ID, IDS, IDREF, IDREFS; 2) Remove all existing co-constraints wrt ID; 3) Remove all the special validation rules and _ad-hoc_ PSVI structures associated with ID/IDREF; 4) Define the semantics of ID/IDREF 'as if' every attr/elt of type ID contributed to a synthetic 'unique' constraint on the validation root of the form <xs:select xpath='[all possible parents]'/> <xs:field xpath='elt or @attr, as appropriate'/> and every attr/elt of type IDREF contributed similarly to a synthetic 'keyref' constraint 5) Change the {fields} property of Identity Constraints to be a property record containing {xpath} and a new {distributed} property with a boolean value, mapped from xs:field/@distributed, with semantics of 'false' being _status quo_, and 'true' being, roughly "when this xpath matches something validated as a list, treat each item in that list as a field value" 6) Use that new property to define the semantics of IDS and IDREFS, parallel to (4)
The WG discussed this at a face to face meeting on 28 March and decided to close it as WONTFIX. Our rationale is that part of the proposal appears to be at variance with our charter obligation to support the functionality of DTDs, and the work involved appears (a) potentially time-consuming and (b) not needed if we don't deprecate ID and IDREF.