Editorial comment on PR draft

Wednesday, July 13, 2005, 2:07:23 PM, Elliotte wrote:

EHDeclarations in either the internal or external DTD subset of an XML
EHdocument can declare attributes to be of type ID. However, some
EHspecifications, notably SAP, forbid DTDs completely; and processing the
EHexternal DTD subset is optional for conformant XML processors, leaving
EHno guarantee that all consumers of the XML document will be able to
EHsuccessfully recognize the identifiers.

I think that is better and clearer, yes. I wonder if it might be better
to go from the general to the specific

Declarations in either the internal or external DTD subset of an XML
document can declare attributes to be of type ID. However, processing
the external DTD subset is optional for conformant XML processors, and
some specifications, notably SAP, forbid DTDs completely; leaving no
guarantee that all consumers of the XML document will be able to
successfully recognize the identifiers.

However, I am happy with Elliotte's wording too.

/ Elliotte Harold <elharo (AT) metalab (DOT) unc.eduwas heard to say:
| The PR draft states:
|
| Declarations in either the internal or external subset of an XML
| document can declare attributes to be of type ID. However, some
| specifications, notably [SAP], forbid an internal subset, and
| processing the external subset is optional for conformant XML
| processors, leaving no guarantee that all consumers of the XML
| document will be able to successfully recognize the identifiers.
|
| This was quoted in a recent CNET article where I noticed that this
| implied that SAP allowed an external DTD subset. It doesn't. In fact,
| what SAP forbids is not the internal DTD subset. It is the entire
| DCTYPE declaration. I propose rewriting this along these lines:
|
| Declarations in either the internal or external DTD subset of an XML
| document can declare attributes to be of type ID. However, some
| specifications, notably SAP, forbid DTDs completely; and processing
| the external DTD subset is optional for conformant XML processors,
| leaving no guarantee that all consumers of the XML document will be
| able to successfully recognize the identifiers.
|
| Notice also that I have replaced "internal or external subset" with
| "internal or external DTD subset" which is I think a little clearer.
| You have to be pretty deep in XML wonkery to realize that "internal
| subset" means "internal DTD subset".
|
| Also note that the comma in "forbid an internal subset, and processing
| the external subset" should be a semicolon.
|
| There may well be a better way to fix this paragraph than the one I've
| suggested. That would be fine. However I do think this paragraph is
| less clear than it should be.

Thank you for your comment. The Core WG accepted your comment and the
editor has updated the draft accordingly:

<p>Declarations in either the internal or external DTD subset of an
XML document can declare attributes to be of type ID. However,
processing the external DTD subset is optional for conformant XML
processors, and some specifications, notably <bibref ref="SAP"/>,
forbid DTDs completely; leaving no guarantee that all consumers of the
XML document will be able to successfully recognize the identifiers.</p>

Be seeing you,
norm

Norman Walsh wrote:

<p>Declarations in either the internal or external DTD subset of an
XML document can declare attributes to be of type ID. However,
processing the external DTD subset is optional for conformant XML
processors, and some specifications, notably <bibref ref="SAP"/>,
forbid DTDs completely; leaving no guarantee that all consumers of the
XML document will be able to successfully recognize the identifiers.</p>

Thanks. There's still a minor grammatical error here. The semicolons are
wrongly placed in the sentence

However, processing the external DTD subset is optional for conformant
XML processors, and some specifications, notably <bibref ref="SAP"/>,
forbid DTDs completely; leaving no guarantee that all consumers of the
XML document will be able to successfully recognize the identifiers.

This sentence should read:

However, processing the external DTD subset is optional for conformant
XML processors; and some specifications, notably <bibref ref="SAP"/>,
forbid DTDs completely, leaving no guarantee that all consumers of the
XML document will be able to successfully recognize the identifiers.

That is, put a semicolon after "XML processors" and change the semicolon
before "leaving" to a comma.

/ Elliotte Harold <elharo (AT) metalab (DOT) unc.eduwas heard to say:
| This sentence should read:
|
| However, processing the external DTD subset is optional for conformant
| XML processors; and some specifications, notably <bibref ref="SAP"/>,
| forbid DTDs completely, leaving no guarantee that all consumers of the
| XML document will be able to successfully recognize the identifiers.
|
| That is, put a semicolon after "XML processors" and change the
| semicolon before "leaving" to a comma.

/me blushes. Thank you. Fixed.

Be seeing you,
norm