James Clark wrote:

> > How can you apply the rule if you haven't read the DTD?

> Reading the DTD and validating aren't the same thing.  Unless a document
> has standalone="yes", the browser should always read a provided DTD so
> that it can correctly
>
> - - default attributes
> - - normalize attribute values
> - - expand entity references
>
> None of these things involve validation.

"should always read a provided DTD" ... including the *external* subset???  If
you have

	<?xml version="1.0"?>
	<!DOCTYPE masterpiece SYSTEM "external.dtd" [
	<!ENTITY ref "World">
	]>
	<masterpiece>Hello &ref;.</masterpiece>

and "external.dtd" contains only

	<!ATTLIST masterpiece
		author CDATA #FIXED "Dennis Ritchie"
	>

what's going to happen in a non-validating processor?  Section 5.1 of the
recommendation says

	Non-validating processors are required to check only the
	document entity, including the entire internal DTD subset,
	for well-formedness. While they are not required to check the
	document for validity, they are required to process all the
	declarations they read in the internal DTD subset ...

That suggests a non-validating processor can ignore the external subset, and
thus not fully "read the DTD".  So how does it pick up those default attributes?


/Jelks


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