Re: SGML declarations for subdocuments

Subject: Re: SGML declarations for subdocuments
From: Adam Di Carlo <adam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 22 Oct 1999 15:27:20 -0400
Matthias Clasen <clasen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> 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?

Does it work with SGML documents or XML documents?  

> 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?

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 the declaration doesn't have a public identifier and you don't want
> to make one up, you can simply omit the whole external identifier and
> just write
> 
> <!SGML name>
> 
> jade supports this with an undocumented extension to the SO catalog
> format. You can use a catalog entry of the form
> 
> SGML name sysid
> 
> to associate a sysid with the name in the SGML declaration reference.

Interesting.  Do both these techniques work in SGML and XML?  Just
SGML?

> This is pretty close to DTDDECL functionality, I'd say. You just have
> to remember to start all your docbook documents with <!SGML docbook>.

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.

> ...of course, I discovered all this *after* implementing DTDDECL in
> OpenJade...

Geeze, Jade is just a treasure trove of amazing, undocumented
behavior, eh?

-- 
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>


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