xml-dev - Re: Namespaces and DTDs

[Andrew McNaughton <andrew@squiz.co.nz>]

How about having the ability to say 'process the children of this element 
using that dtd'.  Attach DTD declarations to elements, not just to documents.

It feels like some way is needed to make interpretation of XML subtrees 
dependent on context, hence not requiring the rewriting of XML imported into a 
document as a subtree from the context of a different document.

(Perhaps I'm being naive.  I'm new to this.)

Andrew McNaughton



> A simple extension to namespaces could have fixed this problem:
> 1.	Allow a DTD to be optionally specified along with the namespace 
> prefix and URI
> 2.	When an element is prefixed, parse it using the DTD associated with 
> the namespace and the given prefix as the default.
> 3.	If no DTD is associated with the prefix or not validating, do what 
> is done now (ensure element is well-formed).
> 
> Your DTDs would not need to be changed, you would just have to 
> indicate which HEAD (for example) is desired in the content and add 
> associated DTD urls to the namespace declarations.
> 
> Marc B McDonald
> Principal Software Scientist
> Design Intelligence, Inc
> www.design-intelligence.com
> 
> 
> ----------
> From:  Ronald Bourret [SMTP:rbourret@ito.tu-darmstadt.de]
> Sent:  Tuesday, March 09, 1999 9:02 AM
> To:  xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
> Subject:  RE: Namespaces and DTDs
> 
> Richard L. Goerwitz wrote:
> 
> > Maybe I misunderstand, but as far as I can see, namespaces won't 
> help
> > you, either.  Why?  Because even if you can refer to, say, your two 
> TITLE
> > elements by different prefixes, you'll still have to declare the 
> prefixed
> > elements in the DTD as if they were atomic element names.
> >
> > Namespaces, in other words, don't solve your problem.  They may make 
> it
> > worse, in fact, because you have to know what prefixes you are going 
> to
> > declare in a given document to be able to rewrite your DTD to work 
> with
> > that document.
> >
> > There was a furor two or three months ago on this list about 
> namespaces
> > breaking validation.  That furor died down when the namespace spec 
> became
> > an official recommendation (a done deal, in other words).
> 
> You are correct.  In today's environment (namespace-unaware parsers 
> and no
> way to associate prefixes and URIs in the DTD), you must use the same 
> prefixes in the DTD and the document for validation to work.  I didn't 
> state this because it was stated repeatedly during the aforementioned 
> furor, which I sincerely hope this thread won't reignite.
> 
> -- Ron Bourret
> 
> 
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-- 
-----------
Andrew McNaughton
andrew@squiz.co.nz
http://www.newsroom.co.nz/



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