Re: ICADD support in XML [Was: SGML declaration for XML]

At 03:37 PM 11/11/96 -0500, Steven J. DeRose wrote:

>I don't see what the LINK features have to do with ICADD. ICADD involves
>adding architectural form attributes to elements. You can do that with
>ATTLIST declarations and be done (which several DTDs have already,
>admirably, done). Most existing software can look at those attributes and
>condition formatting or other representational characteristics based on
>those attributes.
>
>Insisting that vendors implement LINK in order to support ICADD is the
>surest way to be sure no one implements ICADD, which I think would be a
tragedy.

What Steve says is, of course, true, but it somewhat misses the point of
using LINK in this case, which is that LINK allows such attributes to be
added to documents unilaterally, without the need to modify the document
types directly. It also makes it possible to use a wide range of
architectures with a documents without overloading each element with a long
list of always-there fixed attributes.

For ICADD, I think every document type intended to be used for documents
that will have visually-impaired readers should include the ICADD
architectural attributes in particular, but we can't count on it.

I also suspect that once the use of architectures becomes more widespread,
which I think it will once the HyTime TC is published and people start to
understand the power that's there, that users will start to see how LINK,
at least in its simple #IMPLICIT form, can be of real benefit and that, as
a result, vendors will start to add support for it.  Given that both
SoftQuad and ADEPT have to rework their editors to allow element
declarations in internal subsets anyway, it can't be that much more effort
to support implicit link at the same time.  I can't imagine that it would
be hard for the DynaText parser to add support for LINK either (if it's
Yasp or SP, it's already there or mostly there).   

However, my point was that, as a delivery mechanism, software that supports
LINK sufficiently exists and can be used to easily build the necessary
filters. It helps that this software is also free, robust, and fast.

Cheers,

E.
--
W. Eliot Kimber (eliot@isogen.com) 
Senior SGML Consulting Engineer, Highland Consulting
2200 North Lamar Street, Suite 230, Dallas, Texas 75202
+1-214-953-0004 +1-214-953-3152 fax
http://www.isogen.com (work) http://www.drmacro.com (home)
"Rats in the morning, rats in the afternoon...if they don't go away, I'll be
re-educated soon..."                 --Austin Lounge Lizards, "1984 Blues"

Received on Monday, 11 November 1996 16:38:23 UTC