Re: draft of requirement related to entities

At 01:13 05/03/30, Yves Savourel wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>Here is an updated version of the entity requirement.
>
>It still does not have anthing with regard to character entity references 
>vs. NCRs as Richard suggested. Maybe we also need something about the 
>predefined character entities (', etc.)?
>
>==============================
>Challenge/Issue:
>
>XML applications (i.e. a combination of DTD/XSD, stylesheets, XML instances)

I don't see why you need to talk about "XML applications".
This already applies to XML documents. DTDs, Schemas, stylesheets,...
have other issues, some (problems with multiple files, where some
files may not be available) similar to issues with entities.


>  often are subdivided into physical units called entities (see 
> <http://www.xml.com/axml/target.html#sec-physical-struct>http://www.xml.com/axml/target.html#sec-physical-struct). 
> Various types of entities exist (see 
> <http://tech.irt.org/articles/js212/#intro>http://tech.irt.org/articles/js212/#intro).
>
>Examples:
>
>1- A character entity. The entity defines a single Unicode character.
>
>Example: <!ENTITY aacute "&#225;" >
>
>2- A short element-free text. The entity defines a short text that 
>contains only text (no element or other XML constructs). This is for 
>instance an entity for a product name.
>
>Example: <!ENTITY ProductName "PictoMagic for Windows" >
>
>3- A longer text with one or more elements. The entity defines a piece of 
>boiler-plate text such as a copyright paragraph.
>
>Example: <!ENTITY CopyrightInfo "<a href='\copyright.htm'>Copyright</a> 
>2005 W3C.">
>
>Two aspects of entities are of particular importance with regard to 
>internationalization and localization:
>
>1.      entities are defined
>2.      entities are used

This seems a bit too obvious to me to mention, but anyway.
It may be good to say somewhere that entities provide a similar
mechanism to macros, i.e. text-based replacement.


>For example, the snippet
>
>         <!ENTITY ProductName "PictoMagic for Windows" >
>
>defines an entity called 'ProductName', and the snippet
>
>         The latest version of &ProductName; features many enhancements.
>
>references/uses the entity.
>
>If internationalization and localization are not addressed for 
>entity-related work several issues may arise:
>
>1.      Entity reference cannot be resolved
>
>Example: the definition is not available to the XML processor
>
>2.      Entity definition does not fit with the surrounding context 
>language-wise
>
>Example: The context in 'Das Produkt &ProductName; ist mit vielen 
>Erweiterungen ausgestattet worden' is German whereas the definition may be 
>in English
>
>3.      Entity definition does not fit with the surrounding context 
>grammar-wise
>
>Example: The syntax in 'The latest version of &ProductName; features many 
>enhancements' may be incorrect if the definition designates an object in plural.
>
>In addition, even if the entity itself is translated there may be 
>significant grammatical problems for inflected languages for nouns. The 
>translation will inevitably follow the case of the original. For example, 
>if the original is genitive, the translation is genitive as well (of 
>course this requires that the original language and the translation 
>language have a concept for $BAH(Benitive$BC
(B.
>
>Since entities affect the content of the document, and XSLT processors 
>and other kinds of XML processors act on the content, various 
>processing-related issues may arise. An XSLT stylesheet for example, which 
>is sensitive to content contributed by an entity, may fail to work as 
>expected (e.g. may not be able to generate the 'alt' for HTML pages).
>
>Notes:
>
>Ideally, the solution which the WG will produce will be applicable not 
>only with regard to entities but also in the realm of XInclude (see 
><http://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude/>http://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude/) or even 
>fragments (see 
><http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/CR-xml-fragment-20010212#packaging>http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/CR-xml-fragment-20010212#packaging).
>
>Quick Guideline Thoughts:
>
>1. If possible, XML applications should avoid the use of entities.

yes.


>2. XML applications which have to make use of entities have to be build 
>in such a way that entities can be localized easily (ie. the XML 
>application has to be internationalized wrt. entities).

How would that be done?


>3. If entities are used, the XML instances should be declared as 
>'standalone' (see 
><http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-rmd>http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-rmd).

I don't understand that. Surely, if you have external
entities, the XML document is no longer standalone,
and pretending that it is won't help. So it should be
standalone="no", or not?


Regards,    Martin.

Received on Wednesday, 30 March 2005 02:10:18 UTC