When you have a defaultOpenContent in a schema document, this switch
determines whether the open content is allowed even on elements whose
content model is empty.

Section 3.4.2.3.3 clause 5 makes this clear: if a complex type does not
define its own <openContent>, then it is taken from the
<defaultOpenContent>, provided that either the content model is non-empty,
or the content model is empty and defaultOpenContent/@appliesToEmpty is true

Regards,

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmlschema-dev-request@w... 
> [mailto:xmlschema-dev-request@w...] On Behalf Of Costello, Roger L.
> Sent: 01 June 2009 17:04
> To: xmlschema-dev@w...
> Subject: [XML Schema 1.1] What does the "appliesToEmpty" 
> attribute mean? What does it do?
> 
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> A search for "appliesToEmpty" in the structures' 
> specification yields 4 occurrences of this term, but no prose 
> describing its meaning.
> 
> What does "appliesToEmpty" mean? What does it do?
> 
> /Roger