xml-dev - RE: Will XML change the character of W3C?

[Karl Best <karl.best@oasis-open.org>]

Gavin says:

> > 3) XML is an SGML application only after you change SGML a bit.
> > Many - not all - but many SGML tools that predate this, um, adaption
> > of the SGML standard will not process XML correctly.
>
> True, but again, that is because the do not implement SGML fully.

XML as initially created was supposed to be a true subset of SGML, but such
things as the optional occurence markers in DTD element declarations, and
the empty tag syntax, were not SGML-conformant. So, to keep XML as a true
subset of SGML, SGML had to be tweaked. The W3C XML committee asked the ISO
SGML committee for some minor changes, and they released a revision (not the
right word, but I can't remember what it was called; some sort of silent
change) to the SGML standard in ~1997.

So, XML is not compliant to ISO 8879-1986 as published in 1986, but it is
compliant with ISO 8879 as it exists after the ~1997 change. So any SGML
parser that supports the later version of SGML should also support XML.


</karl>
============================================================
Karl F. Best
OASIS - Director, Technical Operations
978.667.5115 x206
karl.best@oasis-open.org  http://www.oasis-open.org