RE: SGML declarations for subdocuments

["Mason, James David (MXM) " <MXM@xxxxxxxx>]

Official text is at http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0029.htm .

We just found out last week that because of a glitch at ISO Central
Secretariat this thing hadn't been published even though it was approved a
year ago. That's being fixed. 

Jim Mason
James David Mason, Ph.D.

(Chairman ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34)
http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/sc34

Science Applications International Corporation

Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant
P.O. Box 2009, M.S. 8208
+1 423 574 6973



> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Matthias Clasen [SMTP:clasen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent:	Friday, October 22, 1999 04:35 p.m.
> To:	dssslist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:	Re: SGML declarations for subdocuments
> 
> > 
> > > jade already allows you to get most of the DTDDECL functionality
> > > by using an SGML declaration reference according to the WWW
> extensions.
> > 
> > Hmmm....  this is bizarre.  Where are these WWW extensions defined?
> 
> Its the second technical corrigendum to ISO 8879, you can find a link
> on the SGML Web page, in the SGML revision section, I don't have the 
> url at hand.
> 
> > 
> > Does it work with SGML documents or XML documents?  
> > 
> 
> Would it be of much use for XML ? XML uses a fixed declaration and has
> a PI to announce itself instead of the <!SGML ...> declaration, doesn't
> it?
> 
> > > You can start your document with
> > > 
> > > <!SGML name PUBLIC pubid>
> > > 
> > > and have a PUBLIC catalog entry mapping pubid to a sysid containing
> > > the body of the declaration (ie everything between `<!SGML' and `>').
> > 
> > Wierd.  What is the purpose of 'name' in this case?
> > 
> 
> You can think of it as the name of the implicitly declared external
> entity.
> 
> > So if I had an SGML declaration with a public id of '-//foo//Foo Decl',
> > I could say:
> > 
> >   <!SGML foo PUBLIC '-//foo//Foo Decl'>
> >   <!doctype foo PUBLIC '-//foo//Foo DTD'>
> > 
> > And all would work as expected?
> 
> If you put either
> 
> PUBLIC '-//foo//Foo Decl' '/path/to/decl'
> 
> or 
> 
> SGML foo '/path/to/decl'
> 
> in your catalog, yes.
> 
> > 
> > Well, it's still inferiour to DTDDECL (bless you for implementing
> > that) because it requires the document *authors*, rather than the
> > infrastructure maintainers (i.e., catalog maintainer) to add this
> > little wierd frob.
> 
> I guess for authors it doesn't matter if they have to write
> <!DOCTYPE docbook ... or <!SGML docbook><!DOCTYPE docbook ...
> its a magic incantation in any case. And I would expect it to be
> hidden in a document skeleton. 
> 
> But it is *much* easier to implement than DTDDECL, since <!SGML is 
> a fixed string which doesn't vary with the selected declaration, 
> unlike <!DOCTYPE. So it may have been a wise decision of James not to
> implement DTDDECL. He just should have told us about the neat trick
> with the SGML catalog entry... 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Matthias Clasen, 
> Tel. 0761/203-5606
> Email: clasen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Mathematisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg
> 
> 
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