Further touchups and followups on review

LICENSE.md

@@ -1,35 +1,34 @@
-# NIST Software Licensing Statement
-
-NIST-developed software is provided by NIST as a public service.
-You may use, copy, and distribute copies of the software in any
-medium, provided that you keep intact this entire notice. You may
-improve, modify, and create derivative works of the software or
-any portion of the software, and you may copy and distribute such
-modifications or works. Modified works should carry a notice
-stating that you changed the software and should note the date
-and nature of any such change. Please explicitly acknowledge the
-National Institute of Standards and Technology as the source of
-the software.
-
-NIST-developed software is expressly provided "AS IS." NIST MAKES
-NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, IN FACT, OR ARISING BY
-OPERATION OF LAW, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
-WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,
-NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND DATA ACCURACY. NIST NEITHER REPRESENTS NOR
-WARRANTS THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED
-OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. NIST DOES
-NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OF THE
-SOFTWARE OR THE RESULTS THEREOF, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE
-CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR USEFULNESS OF THE
-SOFTWARE.
-
-You are solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of
-using and distributing the software and you assume all risks
-associated with its use, including but not limited to the risks
-and costs of program errors, compliance with applicable laws,
-damage to or loss of data, programs or equipment, and the
-unavailability or interruption of operation. This software is not
-intended to be used in any situation where a failure could cause
-risk of injury or damage to property. The software developed by
-NIST employees is not subject to copyright protection within the
-United States.
+- [This project is in the worldwide public domain](#this-project-is-in-the-worldwide-public-domain)
+  - [Fair Use of NIST Data/Works](#fair-use-of-nist-dataworks)
+  - [NIST Software](#nist-software)
+- [Contributions to this project](#contributions-to-this-project)
+
+# This project is in the worldwide public domain
+
+As a work of the United States government, the work in this repository is in the public domain within the United States. See [Fair Use of NIST Data/Works](#fair-use-of-nist-dataworks) and [NIST Software](#nist-software) for more information. 
+
+Additionally, the work in this repository is made available in the public domain worldwide using the [CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).
+
+## Fair Use of NIST Data/Works
+
+This data/work was created by employees of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the Federal Government. Pursuant to title 17 United States Code Section 105, works of NIST employees are not subject to copyright protection in the United States.  This data/work may be subject to foreign copyright.
+
+The data/work is provided by NIST as a public service and is expressly provided “AS IS.” NIST MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT AND DATA ACCURACY. NIST does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use of the data or the results thereof, including but not limited to the correctness, accuracy, reliability or usefulness of the data. NIST SHALL NOT BE LIABLE AND YOU HEREBY RELEASE NIST FROM LIABILITY FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, AND THE LIKE), WHETHER ARISING IN TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE DATA (OR THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS DATA), EVEN IF NIST HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+To the extent that NIST may hold copyright in countries other than the United States, you are hereby granted the non-exclusive irrevocable and unconditional right to print, publish, prepare derivative works and distribute the NIST data, in any medium, or authorize others to do so on your behalf, on a royalty-free basis throughout the world.
+
+You may improve, modify, and create derivative works of the data or any portion of the data, and you may copy and distribute such modifications or works. Modified works should carry a notice stating that you changed the data and should note the date and nature of any such change. Please explicitly acknowledge the National Institute of Standards and Technology as the source of the data:  Data citation recommendations are provided at https://www.nist.gov/open/license.
+
+Permission to use this data is contingent upon your acceptance of the terms of this agreement and upon your providing appropriate acknowledgments of NIST’s creation of the data/work.
+
+## NIST Software
+
+NIST-developed software is provided by NIST as a public service. You may use, copy, and distribute copies of the software in any medium, provided that you keep intact this entire notice. You may improve, modify, and create derivative works of the software or any portion of the software, and you may copy and distribute such modifications or works. Modified works should carry a notice stating that you changed the software and should note the date and nature of any such change. Please explicitly acknowledge the National Institute of Standards and Technology as the source of the software. 
+
+NIST-developed software is expressly provided "AS IS." NIST MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, IN FACT, OR ARISING BY OPERATION OF LAW, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND DATA ACCURACY. NIST NEITHER REPRESENTS NOR WARRANTS THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. NIST DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR THE RESULTS THEREOF, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR USEFULNESS OF THE SOFTWARE.
+
+You are solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using and distributing the software and you assume all risks associated with its use, including but not limited to the risks and costs of program errors, compliance with applicable laws, damage to or loss of data, programs or equipment, and the unavailability or interruption of operation. This software is not intended to be used in any situation where a failure could cause risk of injury or damage to property. The software developed by NIST employees is not subject to copyright protection within the United States.
+
+# Contributions to this project
+
+As stated in [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md), all contributions to this repository are made under the [CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). By submitting a pull request, you are agreeing to comply with this waiver of copyright interest.

README.md

@@ -38,10 +38,6 @@ Additionally, we care about, but do not prioritize:
 - Portability beyond the XML/XSLT dependency stack (instead relying on other Metaschema initiatives)
 - Specific use cases
 
-- Performance
-- Portability beyond the XML/XSLT dependency stack (instead relying on other Metaschema initiatives)
-- Use cases in isolation
-
 ### Origins
 
 Formerly housed in the Metaschema repository, this code base traces the history of development of the Metaschema concept in the context of the OSCAL project. It was originally conceived as a demonstration and proof of concept, providing a bridge enabling JSON- and XML-based development in parallel over common problem sets and common data. Success in this effort led to a determination that multiple implementations of a platform-independent specification were needed, at which point this implementation was carved out into its own repository.
@@ -60,7 +56,7 @@ The best way to ensure long-term access to the code base is to clone or fork the
 
 ## Installation and operation
 
-To operate in trial, test or 'bare-bones' mode, scripts are offered to perform operations with no installation except Maven and `bash` as a command line environment.
+To operate in trial, test or 'bare-bones' mode, scripts are offered to perform operations with no installation except Maven (with JDK as required) and `bash` as a command line environment.
 
 The utilities are however designed for integration in a range of environments, and core functionalities are implemented in XSLT 3, which is supported across platforms including Java, node JS and C.
 
@@ -73,21 +69,25 @@ The software is designed to be used in a range of ways:
 
 The following generalized services are provided by the tools in this repository, separately or in combination
 
-- XSD and JSON schema generation - `schema-gen` folder
-- Converter XSLTs for metaschema-supported data - `converter-gen`
-- Metaschema documentation `document`.
+- XSD and JSON schema generation - [`schema-gen` folder](schema-gen)
+- Converter XSLTs for metaschema-supported data - [`converter-gen` folder](converter-gen)
+- Metaschema documentation production - [`document` folder](document).
 
 Scripts and stylesheets are documented in place using readmes and in line. Most scripts depend on Apache Maven supporting a Java runtime. Since XSLTs can call, import, include or read XSLTs from elsewhere in the repo, and sometimes do, keep the modules together: each folder on its own is *not* self-contained.
 
+Accordingly, a good place to start for further research is the `src` directory with [its `readme.md`](src/README.md).
+
 For testing, all XSpec scenarios (`*.xspec`) can be run in place to generate local test reports.
 
 Users are also expected to call resources in this repository from their own scripts. Do this either by cloning, copying and modifying scripts here; by writing your own; or by adapting code into the XML/XSLT processing framework or stack of your choice.
 
-A convention is used indicating that an XProc (`*.xpl` file) or XSLT (`*.xsl`) intended to be invoked directly (that is, not only to be used as a module or component) is given a name entirely or partly in `ALL-CAPITALS`. For example, `src/schema-gen/METASCHEMA-ALL-SCHEMAS.xpl` is such an XProc pipeline (a step definition intended to be used directly).
+In general, at least two invocations will be offered for each process, an XProc-based invocation and a pure-XSLT-based invocation. Either may be useful in different scenarios.
+
+A convention is used indicating that an XProc (`*.xpl` file) or XSLT (`*.xsl`) intended to be invoked directly (that is, not only to be used as a module or component) is given a name entirely or partly in `ALL-CAPITALS`. For example, `src/schema-gen/METASCHEMA-ALL-SCHEMAS.xpl` is such an XProc pipeline (a step definition intended to be used directly). XSLTs that observe this convension are, additionally, higher-order transformations by virtue of using the `transform()` function.
 
 ### Dependencies
 
-As a freely-available XSLT 3.0 engine, the Saxon XSLT processor can be regarded as a *de facto* dependency - while this XSLT-conformant code should in principle run in any processor implementing the language. SaxonHE can be bundled using Maven or another Java packaging technology.
+As a freely-available XSLT 3.0 engine, the Saxon XSLT processor can be regarded as a *de facto* dependency - while this XSLT-conformant code should in principle run in any processor implementing the language. Saxon-HE can be bundled using Maven or another Java packaging technology.
 
 The [POM file](support/pom.xml) for Java/Maven configuration indicates the current tested version of Saxon. At time of writing, Saxon versions 10 and 11 are known to work with this codebase. When reporting bugs please include the version of your processor.
 
@@ -143,22 +143,10 @@ Piez, Wendell (2023), Metaschema-XSLT. US National Institute of Standards and Te
 
 ## Related projects
 
-See the [Metaschema Repository](https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema) and its [Pages Site](https://pages.nist.gov/metaschema/) for a description and specification of the technology this software is designed to support.
-
-See the Project [Wiki](https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema-xslt/wiki)  for documentation maintained on this site.
-
-See the Project [Wiki](https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema-xslt/wiki)  for documentation maintained on this site.
-
-Projects currently known to be using NIST Metaschema
-
-- [OSCAL: the Open Security Controls Assessment Language](https://pages.nist.gov/OSCAL/)
-See the Project [Wiki](https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema-xslt/wiki)  for documentation maintained on this site.
+See the [Metaschema Repository](https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema) and its [Pages Site](https://pages.nist.gov/metaschema/) for a description and specification of the technology this software is designed to support. Those pages also contain links to other projects.
 
-Projects in support of NIST Metaschema (at time of writing)
+See the Project [Wiki](https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema-xslt/wiki) for documentation maintained on this site.
 
-- https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema-java
-- https://github.com/usnistgov/metaschema-node
-- https://github.com/usnistgov/nmetaschema
 ## Required outline
 
 This page includes all the following, as described by guidelines at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usnistgov/opensource-repo/main/README.md
@@ -179,6 +167,6 @@ This page includes all the following, as described by guidelines at https://raw.
    - References to user guides if stored outside of GitHub
 1. Directions on appropriate citation with example text
 1. References to any included non-public domain software modules,
-   and additional license language if needed, *e.g.* [BSD][li-bsd],
-   [GPL][li-gpl], or [MIT][li-mit]
+   and additional license language if needed, *e.g.* BSD,
+   GPL, or MIT