Re: A constraint on markup for EMPTY elements

On Sat, 14 Sep 1996 23:40:58 -0700, Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com> wrote:

>The idea of being able to start using <foo/> right now, finessing it past 8879 
>with stupid NET tricks until WG8 applies the correct ETAGC machinery, is 
>elegant and pleasing.
>
>But perhaps it's really dumb.  Because to ignore the pervasive influence
>of the Web, in Anno Domini MCMXCVI, is to risk shuffling down the silent road
>to dusty death.  And HTML of course has <BR> and <HR> and <IMG> and
>doubtless others as well that don't come instantly to mind.
>
(The substance of this comment was  buried in a posting on another subject.
Sorry for the duplication for those of you who've read it elsewhere.)

We don't need to declare EMPTY elements. We can just declare (#pcdata) and use
explicit end-tags in the instance. We lose the ability to validate emptiness,
but that is minor compared to the benefit of simplifying DTD-less instance
parsing without introducing syntactic constructs that would be unfamiliar to
HTML users.

<p><pe>This is before an image.</pe><img ...></img>
<pe>This is after an image.</pe></p>
--
Charles F. Goldfarb * Information Management Consulting * +1(408)867-5553
           13075 Paramount Drive * Saratoga CA 95070 * USA
  International Standards Editor * ISO 8879 SGML * ISO/IEC 10744 HyTime
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Received on Sunday, 15 September 1996 05:54:27 UTC