- From: Michael Sperberg-McQueen <U35395@UICVM.UIC.EDU>
- Date: Tue, 01 Jul 97 19:58:16 CDT
- To: W3C SGML Working Group <w3c-sgml-wg@w3.org>
On Tue, 1 Jul 1997 18:08:58 -0400 (EDT) Joe English said: >My guess is that: 1) digits cannot be name start characters >so that numeric character references ({) can be >distinguished from named character references (&#ABC;); and >2) element names (id values) are NAMEs because every other >kind of name is a NAME (element type names, entity names, >document type names, attribute names, etc.). Reason 1 sounds a lot like the reason given in beginning programming courses for why names cannot begin with digits in programming languages like C and Pascal. I think the reason as given is persuasive; the parallel to similar rules in other formal languages is also persuasive (and may historically have been a factor). As for the rest, I'm with Rich Jelliffe: this is something for the SGML revision (sgml++) not XML (sgml--). Lobby your WG8 members if this is something you want. -C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Received on Tuesday, 1 July 1997 21:01:28 UTC