What does normative and non-normative mean in reference to XML

xml specifications w3c
nlper picture nlper · Jun 21, 2011 · Viewed 7.2k times · Source

What does normative and non-normative mean in reference to XML documents as stated in the w3.org document? It really is not explained and just assumes we know what it means. Thanks.

Answer

Michael Kay picture Michael Kay · Jun 21, 2011

"Normative" means that it's an official formal part of the specification; non-normative means that it's there to be helpful and aid understanding, but you can't appeal to it in a court of law (so to speak).

I'm afraid that specifications from standard bodies like W3C, just like legal contracts, are written in formal language that the reader is expected to understand. It's worth persevering, because once you've got over the initial hurdle of some unfamiliar language, it's actually much easier to get a definitive answer to many of the kinds of questions that people ask on forums like this by referring to the official standard than by reading the tutorial sites that try to make it more friendly but lose precision in the process.

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