Re: An HTML language specification

Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> HTML5 is indeed defined in prose, unlike many other languages where 
> important normative requirements are delegated to a DTD or schema.

Hardly "delegated", Maciej : a DTD or schema is a formal
language, ideal for (and indeed, intended for) such applications.
Prose, being natural language, would be considered by
many to lack the rigour necessary for such a task.

It may well be beneficial to /supplement/ the DTD or
schema by prose, to aid its comprehension by those
unfamiliar with the formal language (just as the
"Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol-68"
was supplemented by the "Informal Introduction to
Algol-68", for those unfamiliar with VW grammars),
but to rely solely upon prose to define a language
as potentially important as HTML 5 is, IMHO, unwise.

Philip TAYLOR