xml-dev - Re: Options in XML 1.0

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

At 11:05 AM 11/10/00 -0500, Jonathan Borden wrote:
>Simon St.Laurent  wrote:
>>
>> As fond as I have been of DTDs (believe it or not), I think it's well past
>> time to extract them from the initial parsing process, and make them a
>> post-processing tool, something like schemas.  The document contains
>> whatever it contains, and DTD or schema processing is considered an
>> addition to the document, not content at the same level as the actual
>> document content.
>>
>I strongly disagree. In fact there is a role for pre-validation
>transformations. DTDs are not merely used for validation and it is this fact
>which is causing confusion. I agree that the confusion needs to be
>clarified, but I also think we need to clarify the role of DTDs in
>pre-validation transformations.
>
>What "pre-validation transformations"? You may exclaim surprise that DTDs
>are used in this manner. They are. The most simple 'transformation' is
>defaulting of attributes. More complex transformations are performed by the
>use of entities (for example, default namespace prefixes ala Modularization
>of XHTML and in our ASTM E31.25 Healthcare DTDs see
>http://www.openhealth.org/ASTM )

I'm not denying that these things are useful in certain cases, but I'm
questioning whether the way they are implemented in XML 1.0 is sensible
and/or safe.  I have no problem with 'pre-validation transformation',
provided that it takes place in a clearly demarcated processing space and
isn't jumbled with basic XML document reading.

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
XHTML: Migrating Toward XML
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books