Re: Unclear what: "For interoperability, authors are advised to avoid optional features of XML" means.

On Sat, 1 Dec 2007, Dean Edridge wrote:
> From: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/#xhtml5
> >
> > According to the XML specification, XML processors are not guaranteed 
> > to process the external DTD subset referenced in the DOCTYPE. This 
> > means, for example, that using entities for characters in XHTML 
> > documents is unsafe (except for <, >, &, " and ').
> 
> Can this be changed to something more along the lines of: According to 
> the XML specification, XML processors are not guaranteed to process the 
> external DTD subset referenced in the DOCTYPE. This means, for example, 
> that using named character entities for characters in XHTML documents is 
> unsafe (except for <, >, &, " and '). --

I have fixed the dubious use of the term "entities".

> -- When using XHTML, it is recommended that authors use the UTF-8 
> charset. --

I don't really understand why we would want to recommend that here. The 
context here is just the problems of DOCTYPEs and the issue of the lack of 
DTDs for XHTML5.

> -- Additionally, authors can use numerical or hexadecimal entities, for 
> example use the numerical reference ™ to display the trademark 
> symbol.

I think people using XML will be well aware of this; mentioning it here 
again will just make the document longer without really helping anyone.


> > For interoperability, authors are advised to avoid optional features of XML.
> 
> It's unclear to me what this sentence is actually trying to say here. 
> This could mean a lot of things. Perhaps one of the editors could 
> explain what the reader is supposed to take from this sentence.

I've removed it.

Cheers,
-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'