OASIS Mailing List ArchivesView the OASIS mailing list archive below
or browse/search using MarkMail.

 


Help: OASIS Mailing Lists Help | MarkMail Help

 


 

   Re: Weak DTDs

[ Lists Home | Date Index | Thread Index ]
  • From: "Rick Jelliffe" <ricko@allette.com.au>
  • To: <xml-dev@ic.ac.uk>
  • Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 10:13:12 +1000

 
> From: Peter Murray-Rust <peter@ursus.demon.co.uk>

> 	(a) the author has to conform to a pre-defined spectrum of ideas (e.g. a
> tax-return). [This is not required for CML, and any conformance is outside
> what a DTD can deliver - e.g. value verification.]

An SGML DTD can deliver value verification by using lexical typing.
The online version of HyTime '97 has details.  For example you can
specify POSIX regular expressions for values of attributes or
simple elements.   You can use the lexical type mechanism with 
any lexical typing system of your own invention, not just POSIX.
This extensibility is already there. 


> What I'd like to have is a wildcard #ANY (this has
> already been suggested) which can be used for content models something like
> the (currently illegal) XML:
> 
> <!ELEMENT MOL (#ANY,ATOMS,BONDS)*>

Why not have 

<!ELEMENT ANY  - -   ANY>
<!ELEMENT MOL  - -   (ANY, ATOMS, BONDS)*>   

That only costs 1 extra level of tag, and fits into existing SGML & XML.


If the function of a DTD is to abstract out invariant information from
a class of documents. If your information is particularly variable and
unforseeable then you need to use a couple more tags to represent what
you intend.  


Rick Jelliffe

xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)


  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: Weak DTDs
      • From: Peter Murray-Rust <peter@ursus.demon.co.uk>



 

News | XML in Industry | Calendar | XML Registry
Marketplace | Resources | MyXML.org | Sponsors | Privacy Statement

Copyright 2001 XML.org. This site is hosted by OASIS