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Re: Empty elements (and processing without a DTD)


> Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 18:22:22 -0400
> From: "Steven J. DeRose" <sjd@ebt.com>
> 
> > From:  Martin Bryan
> >
> > . . .
> >
> > > 7 Cooked Bits.  A variant of the Raw Bits (parse it and like it!)
> > > approach would be to provide a different syntax for the declarations,
> > > to make them really, really easy to parse.
> >
> > Bang goes any chance of being able to use SGML tools to generate XML!
> 
> The fact that the SGML application can't read XML declarations is not a
> problem that arises because of export; you would have had to make an SGML
> DTD corresponding to the XML declarations in order to load the XML into an
> SGML in the first place, and that one would have told the SGML parser what's
> EMPTY (under Cooked Bits, EMPTY still exists like in SGML). 
> 

Steve,

I'm not sure how your response answers Martin's claim (about whose validity
I'm as yet undecided) that you wouldn't be able to use SGML tools to
*generate* XML.  You seem to be talking about SGML tools *reading* XML.

I understand in the above suggested scenario, SGML tools wouldn't
necessarily be able to read XML *declarations* and--in any case (if XML
doesn't have a full DTD)--the SGML tool would have to obtain/generate a
complete DTD regardless of the syntax used for the declarations that
does come with the XML.

But if XML uses a different syntax in the instance to indicate EMPTY
elements, will SGML tools be able to generate XML?  It seems there are
two parts to the answer:

1.  can an SGML decl be configured so that an SGML editor that handles 
    generation of all variant syntaxes would generate the proper stuff
    for XML's empty elements, and

2.  what is the fraction of existing SGML editors that, when handed that
    SGML decl, would in fact support the generation of the specified form
    for XML's empty elements.

I realize we could decide to go with an alternate syntax for XML's empty
elements regardless of current SGML tool capabilities, but that's a
decision to make after we address Martin's Bang.

paul