definition of the document type declaration

Dear XML editor,

Below is a comment on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second
Edition). I hope this is useful.


Sincerely,

Mike McCaleb




Problem: The first sentence in the definition of the document type
declaration, in section 2.8, is contradicted in subsequent sentences.

The first sentence in the definition states:

       Definition: The XML document type declaration contains or points
       to markup declarations that provide a grammar for a class of
       documents.

However, the third sentence in the definition states:

       The document type declaration can point to an external subset
       (a special kind of external entity) containing markup
       declarations, or can contain the markup declarations directly in
       an internal subset, or can do both.

Furthermore, a note in section 2.8 states:

       Note that it is possible to construct a well-formed document
       containing a doctypedecl that neither points to an external
       subset nor contains an internal subset.


Proposed Solution:

Change:

       Definition: The XML document type declaration contains or points
       to markup declarations that provide a grammar for a class of
       documents.

to

       Definition: The XML document type declaration can contain and/or
       point to markup declarations that provide a grammar for a class
       of documents.


-----------------------------------------

<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
<head>
   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
   <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC) [Netscape]">
   <title>XML Comments.html</title>
</head>
<body>
Dear XML editor,
<p>Below is a comment on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0
(Second Edition). I hope this is useful.
<br>&nbsp;
<p>Sincerely,
<p>Mike McCaleb
<br>&nbsp;
<p>
<hr WIDTH="100%">
<br><b>Problem:</b> The first sentence in the definition of the document
type declaration, in section 2.8, is contradicted in subsequent sentences.
<p>The first sentence in the definition states:
<blockquote>Definition: The XML document type declaration contains or points
to markup declarations that provide a grammar for a class of
documents.</blockquote>
However, the third sentence in the definition states:
<blockquote>The document type declaration can point to an external subset
(a special kind of external entity) containing markup declarations, or
can contain the markup declarations directly in an internal subset, or
can do both.</blockquote>
Furthermore, a note in section 2.8 states:
<blockquote>Note that it is possible to construct a well-formed document
containing a doctypedecl that neither points to an external subset nor
contains an internal subset.</blockquote>

<p><br><b>Proposed Solution:</b>
<p>Change:
<blockquote>Definition: The XML document type declaration contains or points
to markup declarations that provide a grammar for a class of
documents.</blockquote>
to
<blockquote>Definition: The XML document type declaration can contain and/or
point to markup declarations that provide a grammar for a class of
documents.</blockquote>
<p>
<hr WIDTH="100%">
</body>
</html>

Received on Wednesday, 29 November 2000 14:40:56 UTC