xml-dev - Re: Attribute type NMTOKEN

["John E. Simpson" <simpson@polaris.net>]

At 02:13 PM 5/8/98 +0200, Ron Bourret wrote:
>Why does the attribute type NMTOKEN exist and how is it intended to be
used?  My 
>best guess is that it is the same as an enumerated type, except that the  
>enumeration is not actually specified in the DTD, perhaps because it is
meant to 
>be open-ended or is too big to list, such as all words in the English
language.  
>Is this true?

As I understand it (would appreciate being corrected if wrong), NMTOKEN
essentially applies a constraint on the form of the attribute's value (i.e.
value must be a valid name token -- start with either a letter or an
underscore) without constraining the *specific* value. So yes, your
"open-ended or... too big to list" assumption is correct, with the
qualification that a type of NMTOKEN would not allow a value such as
"1ABC," "//ENGLISH," or "  WHITESPACE."


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