Re: C.4 Undeclared entities?

David G. Durand (David G. Durand) wrote:

> Given the relative success of HTML and SGML in the marketplace of the Web,
> I'll take my chances with a DTD-less option for XML.

This argument by example holds very little water.  The relative success 
of HTML and SGML in the market cannot be attributed to the DTDlessness 
of HTML.  What it can or cannot be attributed to is a subject of endless 
debate, and success itself it relative to time, place, and the
zeitgeist.
This argument is FUD incarnate.

> I also thing that automatic DTD generation will be a useful tool to help
> naive users develop DTDs by starting with example documents.

Probably so.  Any example helps but a good example directed to the case 
at hand helps the most.  The success of autogeneration depends much on 
the instance from which it is generated and this method can create as 
much superstition as competence, and like many autogenerated music, 
can create as much crap as quality.

Users aren't idiots.  Belief in the lowest common denominator made
the mess we are trying to fix.  That seems to be a real dividing 
belief in this group:  some think we are fixing SGML, some think
we are fixing HTML.  I think we are trying to get our freedom back.

Len Bullard

Received on Friday, 25 October 1996 12:47:44 UTC