xml-dev - Re: Are there still a lot of people using DTD rather than schema?

[Rick JELLIFFE <ricko@geotempo.com>]

yimin zhu wrote:
> 
> I recently attended an XML training course and the instructor was teaching
> DTD rather than schema, so I asked him if there were still a lot of people
> using DTD rather than schema. I got a "yes", but I was not convinced. Does
> anyone have any idea?

If by "schema" you mean "W3C XML Schemas" then no-one in the world is
using them, because they do not exist yet.  The features may change, the
syntax may change, the rationale may change, the document texts may
change (though, of course, the WG has said in the LC draft that the
current version was considered pretty nearly "feature complete" before
consideration of the last call comments.)

However, if by "schema" you mean the instance-syntax languages that are
pre-cursors or alternatives to W3C XML Schemas, such as SOX, XDR, RELAX,
DSD, etc. or to implementations of draft versions of W3C XML Schemas,
then there are many people who are using them.

It is impossible to guess the numbers. I would be surprised if
schema:DTD use was more than 1:10 though, because DTDs are free,
ubiquitous, well-understood, and have widespread coverage in books and
courses. 

Rick Jelliffe