[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Rethinking namespaces, attribute remapping
Good luck getting anyone in the W3C to consider reopening the DTD syntax. I think there's more support for dropping DTDs alltogether. One trick that people have used for ages to indicate data types in DTDs is through parameter entities. <!ENTITY % integer "CDATA" > <!ENTITY % uri "CDATA" > <!ATTLIST foo bar %integer; #IMPLIED href %uri; #IMPLIED> This works great for human documentation, but is not especially machine processable. I wonder if it's worth more thought to try and bless a way of doing this, to provide more meaning to attributes? -Wayne Steele >From: "Keith W. Boone" <keith@w...> >Reply-To: <keith@w...> >To: <xml-dev@l...> >Subject: Re: Rethinking namespaces, attribute remapping >Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 09:07:24 -0400 > >It seems from all the various postings on XLink/HLink, et cetera, that one >of the real problems of XML 1.X is a missing data type, the pointer. If >the >various attributes could have been declared as: > ><!ATTLIST img > src PTR #REQUIRED > : > . > > > ><!ATTLIST a > href PTR #IMPLIED > : > . > > > >Then we would have had a way to identify links [anything with the type >PTR], >regardless of the name of the attribute. So if want to correct the >HLink/XLink fiasco, why not add a type of attributes that indicates that it >is a pointer. We might event use the notation mechanism so that there can >be a way to identify validation constraints on pointers, without requiring >predeclaration of every pointer in an external entity: > >Thus: ><!NOTATION URI PUBLIC "some agreed upon string for href-style URIs" > ><!NOTATION XPointer PUBLIC "some agreed upon string for XPointer URIs" > > >Would declare "Attribute types" > >which could then be used like: ><!ATTLIST a > href NOTATION XPointer #IMPLIED > > > ><!ATTLIST img > src NOTATION URI #IMPLIED > > > >So anyway, if we [as Tonto once said -- We who, Kimosabe?] end up >refactoring XML, I think that something like this should be considered. It >seems to eliminate a lot of the trouble posed by links today, without a lot >of new syntax, and no colons necessary [for those Averse Religiously to >such >devices]. > > Keith > > >Engineering is what happens when science and >mathematics meet politics. Products are what >happens when all three meet reality. > _________________________________________________________________ Join the world?s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
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