Re: Empty endtags (Was: short-tag considered unhealthy)

At 03:05 PM 9/15/96 -0400, Eve L. Maler wrote:
>I'm not sure I'm following all the intricacies of this discussion at 
>this point, but I do think that compact=compact is a bit of a
>strawman.  In this instance, the DTD was designed to optimize manual
>input by taking advantage of (abusing? getting cute with?) one small 
>corner of SGML.  A more self-explanatory and convenient design would 
>have been something like spacing={"compact"|"normal"}.
>
>And I agree it would be great to have a Boolean declared value for 
>attributes, but this still doesn't get around cases like 
>style={"compact"|"normal"|"wide"}.
>
>I don't think it's stupid or counterintuitive to start requiring that
>all "parameter values" (which is how most people understand attribute
>values) be passed, in quotes, along with the "parameter name" that
>they apply to, especially since attribute specifications aren't
>position-sensitive.  It's straightforward and consistent to require
>name="value".

XML should be easy for the person who is creating as well as the person
who is writing the tool that is parsing it. It's a lot easier to remember:

    All attribute values in XML should be written as name="value"

than it is to learn/remember:

    If the attribute has a declared value of CDATA, or if you need to specify
    a whitespace delimited set of values, or ... then you must use ..

You get the picture.

When I'm typing SGML, like Len, I let my fingers do what they're used to
(not that I have any choice in the matter anyway) and put quotes around
attribute values. When I'm typing HTML, I'm irritated by the fact that I
don't feel completely comfortable when specifying attribute values 'cause
I'm never 100% confident as to whether or not I should use quotes. HTML
parsers are just too fragile.

I like the simple approach: simple to explain, simple to remember, simple to
type, and simple to parse.


Robert Streich				streich@slb.com
Schlumberger				voice: 1 512 331 3318
Austin Research				fax:   1 512 331 3760

Received on Tuesday, 17 September 1996 08:02:43 UTC