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Re: SGML queries

• To: Arjun Ray <aray@n...>
• Subject: Re: SGML queries
• From: Marcus Carr <mcarr@a...>
• Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 10:46:36 +1000
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• References: <2C61CCE8A870D211A523080009B94E430752B92C@HQ5> <3D7E71E0.2050303@a...> <h2ssnuouil6sb6o5fceh1tfnb177ttm8r3@4...> <3D7E7D53.50307@a...> <e30tnuoi0edgbd8lnj82evfteguqospqi1@4...>
• User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WinNT4.0; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826

Arjun Ray wrote:

> Yes, we (qua DTD designers) know this.  To guard against *inadvertent*
> error - which was my point - the user would have to be given a different
> explanation or rule of thumb ("Always provide title text, don't leave that
> part blank!")  If they internalize this, very good.

If the start and end tags were required, would you likewise tell them 
"don't just put in <title></title>"?

Markup people don't flip back and forth between the DTD and the instance 
- they take their cues from the hardcopy (or whatever) and then from 
experience. They may not know that a title element will eventually be 
wrapped around the text that immediately follows the start tag for 
section, and why should they? Markup is about providing sufficient 
structural definition, it's not about labelling things.

> I've found "Always start text with a tag that describes it" much easier to
> teach.  Diff'rent strokes fer diff'rent folks...

Agreed, but will you require them to continue to insert the tag long 
after they understand the structure? If, after they had marked up, say, 
a couple of thousand sections each you told them "from now on, if you 
don't want to put in the start tag for a title, then don't" how many do 
you think would keep doing it? Not many, would be my guess.

> Sorry, I don't understand this.  Who said anything about *wanting* to
> create invalid data?

Sections begin with a required title. Whether the start tag of the title 
is omissable or not doesn't change that in any way. The fact that a user 
might create invalid data by leaving out the title element has nothing 
whatsoever to do with omissability.


-- 
Regards,

Marcus Carr                      email:  mcarr@a...
___________________________________________________________________
Allette Systems (Australia)      www:    http://www.allette.com.au
___________________________________________________________________
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
        - Einstein

• References:
  • RE: SGML queries
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
  • Re: SGML queries
    • From: Marcus Carr <mcarr@a...>
  • Re: SGML queries
    • From: Arjun Ray <aray@n...>
  • Re: SGML queries
    • From: Marcus Carr <mcarr@a...>
  • Re: SGML queries
    • From: Arjun Ray <aray@n...>

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