Re: [xml-dev] A heavier-weight proposal for character entity definition

["Rick Jelliffe" <ricko@allette.com.au>]

People interested in this area might also enjoy my
"Elements for Non-Unicode Characters in XML"
http://www.ascc.net/~ricko/xcs/missing_chars.html

That is a stab at a DTD for defining the properties for
private-use area characters.  In (Taiwanese) Chinese PCs, you 
have a little font editor built in, so that you can add new
characters if they are not available.  Doubtless the artist
now known as Prince again would have found his life
easier if this was available on Western PCs too. 

Something like this would require the APIs on 
systems to allow for additions to the Unicode properties,
which does not seem likely.

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe

 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henry S. Thompson" <ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
To: <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 9:56 PM
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] A heavier-weight proposal for character entity definition


> For some reason the body of my message got lost and only the
> attachment showed up -- herewith the body:
> 
> I posted this first in May of 2001.  I think it's worth looking at a
> somewhat more heavy-weight approach to defining character entities,
> since maintaining and distributing entity libraries is going to be an
> important part of the use of XML going forward if we get this right.
> So I'd like to at least look at what a real XML document type for
> character entity definition might look like.  Here's one attempt.
> 
> <?xml version='1.0'?>
> <characters xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/05/Character";
>             xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml";>
>  <xhtml:p>A sample of proposed character entity definition file format</xhtml:p>
>  <character name="copyright" code="169"/>
>  <character name="registered" code="174">
>   <xhtml:p>Individual characters can <xhtml:em>also</xhtml:em> have
>            documentation</xhtml:p>
>  </character>
>  <character name="eacute" code="xC9"/>
>  <character name="bullet" code="x2022"
>             source="http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf"/>
> </characters>
> 
> There's a tentative W3C XML Schema schema document for this
> document type attached below.  It calls out the following issues:
> 
>   1) Should there be an <include> element to allow multiple documents to be
>      combined? (tentative answer - yes)
> 
>   2) Should this be a full general entity mechanism with a value be
>      allowed to be any string? (tentative answer - no)
> 
>   3) Should there be explicit support for documentation, e.g. via <xs:any>?
>      (Tentative answer - yes, XML processors would of course ignore it)
> 
>   4) Should the 'source' attribute be required? (tentative answer - no)?
> 
> There's obviously a fifth issue -- how to connect individual instances
> to entity libraries?  An xml:charents attribute works for me, but
> others may have other ideas.
> 
> ht
> 
> 
> -- 
>   Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
>           W3C Fellow 1999--2001, part-time member of W3C Team
>      2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
>     Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk
>      URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
> 
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