Re: DTD declaration

[Mike Brown <mike@skew.org>]

Richard Knapp wrote:
> In section 4.3.1 of Rec 20001006, there is discussion about Text Declaration. It says "External parsed entities 
> should begin with a text declaration" where the declaration is
> 
> 	<?xml version="1.0"?>
> 
> or a variation on that.
> 
> Is this required in a DTD if it is separate from the XML document? I can't find anything that specifically 
> addresses this issued.

Yes, if the DTD is separate from the document entity, then it is an
"external" entity. If it's readable by an XML processor (parser) then it is
a (dubious tense notwithstanding) "parsed" entity.

The point of the text declaration is mainly to allow an external entity to
indicate to an XML parser what its character encoding is.

If it doesn't have a text declaration, the usual rules for determining the
entity's character encoding will apply, and it will be an error if the
entity does not have the same encoding as is automatically determined...
just like with any other entity -- DTD, document, or document fragment
alike.

   - Mike
____________________________________________________________________
Mike J. Brown, software engineer at            My XML/XSL resources: 
webb.net in Denver, Colorado, USA              http://skew.org/xml/