Re: [xml-dev] Use DTDs!

["Christopher R. Maden" <crism@maden.org>]

On 05/02/2016 08:56 PM, Rick Jelliffe wrote:
> I think one of the limitations of the idea of grammar neutrality (ie
> freely translate the schema into the particular grammar available for
> each tool) is this lack of entity maintenance by some converters.
> (Not a good term) Possibly it is a bigger problem than the different
> power of the different grammars.
This is what killed EBT.

This is second-hand hearsay, through a filter of 20 years, but the 
DynaBase project had multiple big-ticket pre-orders before someone 
noticed that, in parsing the SGML, it normalized away all the entity 
references, which made it useless for actual ongoing document 
management, which was its primary selling point.

Fixing that would have involved changes going down to the deepest layers 
of the parser... which was just no feasible on the announced schedule.

So instead of an IPO making me rich, EBT was sold to Inso (which made a 
few people rich, entirely deservedly), who proceeded to run everything 
into the ground.

<paul-harvey>Now you know... the rest of the story.</paul-harvey>

~Chris
--
Chris Maden, text nerd  <URL: http://crism.maden.org/ >
“If you’ve been a man o’ action, though you’re lying there in traction,
 You will gain some satisfaction thinkin’, ‘Jesus, at least I tried.’”
  — Andy M. Stewart (1952–2015), “Ramblin’ Rover”