xml-dev - Role of CATALOGs (was Re: <XML:SCRIPT>)

[Peter Murray-Rust <peter@ursus.demon.co.uk>]

At 10:29 11/07/98 -0500, W. Eliot Kimber wrote:
[...]
>
>The think about notations as opposed to MIME types is that notations are a
>more general mechanism, not tied to any particular use domain, while MIME
>types are designed specifically to make things work smoothly on the
>Internet. Nothing wrong with that, but I just prefer the more general
>solution as a rule (but I'm like that). Because MIME types can be
>associated with notations (say by using the MIME type as the public or
>system identifier for the notation), the two mechanisms can be complimentary.

I think one of my problems with NOTATIONs in XML is that there has been no
way of linking (F)PIs to system resources. I have realised (or re-realised)
that this can be done through the CATALOG mechanism. Am I right, therefore,
in thinking that use of NOTATION will often be accompanied by CATALOG entries?

If so I am partially relieved. CATALOGs are NOT formally part of XML
(though there is nothing forbidding them). They therefore seem to be
potentially part of the *implementation* (and XML has always distanced
itself from the implementation).

I also used to dislike catalogs because they were one of the many
files-that-could-get-lost when transmitting an SGML document to someone. If
we use jar files (in Java) they can hold CATALOGs along with all the rest
that we are going to have to deliver - stylesheets, schemas, DTDs and the
rest. If this is the case then it relates nicely to our XML-DEV catalog
approach.


	P.

Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic
net connection
VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary
http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg

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