Re: C.4 Undeclared entities?

On Mon, 28 Oct 1996 10:55:18 -0500, gtn@ebt.com (Gavin Nicol) wrote:

>>Transclusions should be done with attribute values only. Entity 
>>references are for constant data that is always parsed.
>
>Entity references can be (even often are) a form of transclusion.
>I cannot see why the XML syntax specification should have anything to
>say on the uses the market finds for the mechnisms defined.

I think there is some confusion between the concept of referencing an entity,
and the SGML syntactic construct called an "entity reference". SGML has two ways
to reference entities: by entity references (&entname; or %entname;) and by
attribute values. Each method is used for a different type of entity.

Syntactic entity references refer only to integral and invariant parts of the
*source* document (which means they are parsed). Attributes refer to data
entities that an application can choose to include in the *output* document, but
never the source document.

Transclusions accessed via a general entity reference (meaning &entname;)
violate 8879.

Transclusions accessed through an attribute value do not violate 8879.


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Charles F. Goldfarb * Information Management Consulting * +1(408)867-5553
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Received on Monday, 28 October 1996 17:43:53 UTC