Re: HTML 3.2 PR

• From: Carl Morris <msftrncs@htcnet.com>
• Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 19:01:20 -0600
• To: <marc@ckm.ucsf.edu>, "WWW HTML List" <www-html@w3.org>
• Message-Id: <199611160102.TAA16905@inet.htcnet.com>

| |I suggest that HMTL 3.2 not make the <!DOCTYPE tag a required tag,
| |but instead use a simpler syntax, such as <VERSION or <DOCTYPE, or
| |add an option to an existing tag.
| |
| |Reason:  <! in HTML indicates a comment.
| 
| <! does not indicate an HTML comment.  Comments are usually indicated
with the
| <!-- ... --> construct, among other ways.
| 
| the <!DOCTYPE...> construct is the SGML (ISO-8879) standard way of
expressing
| which external DTD is used to parse the document instance that
follows.

I am going to pick on people with this:

<! is a comment in HTML >

<! -- this is a comment in SGML -- >

Why?  An HTML parser has no business trying to figure out SGML, an SGML
parser being used on an HTML document on the other hand may have use
for the declaration.  It needs to be described this way.  Calling <! >
not an HTML comment is misleading to those people who have no use for
SGML.

Received on Friday, 15 November 1996 20:01:21 UTC