Re: RS/RE: basic questions

One last plea for sanity on the RE/RS front before I flee the country. May I
start by endorsing Lee's plea:

<p>Some will authors need <em>simple</em> solutions.</p>

I cannot see your average novelist adopting XML if he has to use a standard
word processor type in:

<P>He said &quot;It stinks&quot; as he picked up the &half;&quot; bar</p>

or

<p><c>He said </c><q><c>It stinks</c></q><c>as he....</c></p>

So we are saying that he needs either:

a) a tool to convert from WP to XML form
b) an XML-knowledgeable editor
c) an SGML editor that has an XML output tool.

If the last option is used the editor will presumably use the rules in 7.6.1
and then convert the result to XML. The XML editor will need some rules to
know how to process the pressing of a Return key immediately adjacent to a
markup tag. What these rules will be other than those in 7.6.1 mystifies me
somewhat. What really mystifies me, though, is the rules that will be
applied to convert WP to XML. Can anyone suggest a simple set of rules for
converting existing files into XML that does not require the complexity of
the rules in 7.6.1?

The alternative solution says that all RE/RS codes are whitespace. This
presumes that there will be some rule in the style sheet that distinguishes
a) when RE should be treated as hard line ends b) which elements should and
should not have leading and/or trailing spaces. Providing mechanisms for
both of these options are available in ALL browsers I have not problems with
this approach, but if one browser leaves in leading spaces, and another does
not, then we are in trouble. I typically use leading spaces after REs for
all computer code so that it is indented from the text. I need a mechanism
whereby elements with code in both retain my line breaks and retain the
leading spaces. Without this I cannot use XML.

Martin Bryan
----
Martin Bryan, The SGML Centre, Churchdown, Glos. GL3 2PU, UK 
Phone/Fax: +44 1452 714029   WWW home page: http://www.u-net.com/~sgml/

Received on Tuesday, 24 September 1996 04:24:15 UTC