[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

RE: XML-Data: advantages over DTD syntax?

• From: Rob McDougall <RMcDouga@J...>
• To: "'Paul Madsen'" <paul_madsen@q...>, "'XML DEV'" <xml-dev@i...>
• Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 10:23:31 -0400

If I remember correctly, the advantages are listed in the spec.  The main 
advantage being that you can include the XML-Data definition within the XML 
file itself, so that you now can send a completely self-describing file 
that can be read by a single (XML) parser.

Rob
=======================================================
Rob McDougall            Phone:  (613)751-4800 ext.5232
JetForm Corporation      Fax:    (613)594-8886
http://www.jetform.com   mailto:rmcdouga@j...
=======================================================

-----Original Message-----
From:	Paul Madsen [SMTP:paul_madsen@q...]
Sent:	Monday, September 29, 1997 9:46 AM
To:	XML DEV
Subject:	XML-Data: advantages over DTD syntax?

                                          9:31 AM             29/09/97

Hi, I posted this to comp.text.sgml but didn't get much response (thanks 
J.R.)
_________

The XML-Data specification from Microsoft
(http://www.sil.org/sgml/xml-data9706223.htm) proposes
that the logic traditionally expressed in the DTD (content models, 
attribute
lists, entity definitions,
etc.) be expressed using the syntax of XML instances instead.

For instance, instead of the DTD element declaration

<!ELEMENT book - - (p+) >

the XML-Data scheme rule would be something like

<elementType id="book">
     <elt href="#p" occurs="PLUS"/>
</elementType>

I'm attracted to the the idea if only because it seems "cool".

But what does this gain us? What deficiencies with the DTD formalism does 
it
address?

Is it the ability to extend object types so that one class of object is a
specialization of another more
general class?

Do not Architectural forms provide the traditional DTD syntax just that
ability?

Thanks for any insight.

Paul


xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i...
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following 
message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)



xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i...
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)

• Prev by Date: XML-Data: advantages over DTD syntax?
• Next by Date: Re: XML-Data: advantages over DTD syntax?
• Previous by thread: Re: XML-Data: advantages over DTD syntax?
• Next by thread: Re: XML-Data: advantages over DTD syntax?
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread