I thought I was tasked with analyzing each one and suggesting an action for it.
That's close to my understanding, too. I just think by "each" we mean "all at once". I.e., I was expecting a list of table of all <defaultVal> elements with your suggested disposition. (And for most, if not all, I expect your suggested disposition to boil down to "kill it". :-) But I'm happy to do that; you're right, it at least was my ticket. :-)
If not, then I'm inclined to let you proceed with the ticket the way you want to, since you're the owner.
I most certainly do *not* want to move forward with these one at a time. I want to see and analyze a list of all of them. My bet is that, upon seeing said list, I am going to push for leaving <defaultVal> in, but changing its semantics so that the default value is not actually tucked into DTDs and schemas, but rather <defaultVal> is a hint for your TEI processor.
That seems like a completely new idea to me, not related to my original ticket. But it seems to me that if you're wanting to provide hints to a processor, the place to do that is in the PM, not in the schema specification.
Are we talking about the same ticket? It was submitted by Lou, and in the OP he suggests making this information semantic rather than actionable; and Sebastian, in the first comment, suggests making <defaultVal> into a machine-readable bit of information for humans, rather than an actual schema default. (I.e., a processor hint rather than a schema requirement.) [I'm going to skip a bit here and respond only to last point right now ...]
My point is that "uniform" is also a claim, and we shouldn't be having people make claims that they don't know about. Maybe I don't care whether my divs are composite or uniform -- why is a claim that they're uniform foisted on me without my knowledge? As we keep saying, it's magic and it's misleading.
Yes it's a claim, a claim that you make with 99.9% of the elements you ever encode. Can you imagine what would happen if that were *not* the assertion you were making? <lg> <l>And it's worth it just to hear you say you're going to give me everything</l> <l>But when I get home to you I find the things that you do</l> <l>But when I get home to you I find the things that you do</l> <l>But when I get home to you I find the things that you do</l> <l>It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log</l> <l>It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log</l> <l>It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log</l> <l>It's been a hard day's night, and I been working like a dog</l> <l>It's been a hard day's night, and I been working like a dog</l> <l>It's been a hard day's night, and I been working like a dog</l> <l>So why on earth should I moan, 'cause when I get you alone</l> <l>So why on earth should I moan, 'cause when I get you alone</l> <l>When I'm home everything seems to be right</l> <l>When I'm home everything seems to be right</l> <l>When I'm home feeling you holding me tight, tight</l> <l>When I'm home feeling you holding me tight, tight</l> <l>Will make me feel alright, oww</l> <l>Will make me feel alright</l> <l>Will make me feel alright</l> <l>You know I feel OK</l> <l>You know I feel OK</l> <l>You know I feel alright</l> <l>You know I feel alright</l> <l>You know I work all day to get you money to buy you things</l> </lg> (Tommie Usdin made this very point in an opening keynote address at Extreme Markup Languages years ago.) P.S. for everyone else: Martin & I discussed covers at dinner in Ann Arbor, and I told him I thought Peggy Lee's cover of the above song, in proper order and a few clever tweaks, is *marvelous*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUBAGLinKfI