Re: B.13 ENTITY attributes for notations?

lee@sq.com wrote:

>> B.13 Should XML remove SGML's prohibition on ENTITY attributes for
>> notations (11.4.1)?
>
>It's funny -- I came across this yesterday, as SoftQuad Panorama actually
>uses ENTITY notation attributes in its style sheet DTD (oops).
>
>They're used to specify a mask for an icon.
>
>I don't understand the restriction in SGML (maybe someone can explain it?)
>but I don't see how it can sensibly be lifted in XML unless it might also
>be lifted in SGML.
>
>Lee

When we stumbled upon this silly restriction, I asked Charles about it,
and he wrote me as follows:

>The restrictions on data attribute declared values is on the list to be
>examined during the revision of SGML. I introduced data attributes late 
>in the game so I did it conservatively (I was concerned about long chains
>of entities that had data attributes among which were entities that had
>data attributes, etc.)

Soooo, we have kept the entity attribute in the style sheet DTD--which is
proprietary anyway--and look forward to the day when, hopefully, entity
attributes for notations are allowed in both SGML and XML. 

Cheers,


Hasse
--
Hasse Haitto                          Phone:    +46 8 791 88 81
Synex Information AB                  Fax:      +46 8 791 88 89
Stora Nygatan 20                      Internet: haitto@synex.se
S-111 27 Stockholm, Sweden            WWW:      http://www.synex.se

Received on Monday, 14 October 1996 04:13:28 UTC