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Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View

• To: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
• Subject: Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View
• From: Ann Navarro <ann@w...>
• Date: Fri, 01 Nov 2002 17:18:29 -0500
• Cc: David Carlisle <davidc@n...>,jcowan@r...,xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <3DC29ED8.6030103@t...>
• References: <200210302155.QAA19553@m...><200210302155.QAA19553@m...><200210302155.QAA19553@m...><4.3.1.2.20021101083916.0121afd8@m...>

At 07:33 AM 11/1/2002 -0800, Tim Bray wrote:
>Ann Navarro wrote:
>
>>I have to agree with previous comments that while the position of the
>>XML Core WG may be technically feasible, it does nothing to address the
>>needs of the stated audience for named character entities.
>
>Could you expand on this?  By stated audience I assume you mean HTML. 
>XHTML wants to have human-readable names for less-used characters.  A 
>bunch of declarations in the DTD allow this to happen.  It's easier in XML 
>than SGML because you can map them to something interoperable, namely 
>Unicode code points rather than SDATA voodoo.
>
>Which requirement is being unmet?  Is there a requirement that DTDs not be 
>involved in the process?


OK, maybe we need to back up.

First:

My problem has always been that to use named character entities in an XML 
Schema-based language, you have to use a DTD *as well* to make this happen.

This makes XML Schema mind-bogglingly annoying as an incomplete solution 
for a language definition, that we have no choice but to use based on 
political pressure.

Second:

Asking document authors to write DTDs to simply use the trademark symbol 
(or insert your common character of choice), something they've done for 
years, strikes me as the result of laziness on our part (we = the creators 
of standards). They shouldn't have to do that. Any reasonable justification 
escapes me.

Ann

-----
Ann Navarro, WebGeek, Inc.
http://www.webgeek.com

say what? http://www.snorf.net/blog

• Follow-Ups:
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    • From: "Rick Jelliffe" <ricko@a...>
  • Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
  • Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View
    • From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
  • Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>

• References:
  • Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View
    • From: Ann Navarro <ann@w...>
  • Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>

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