- From: David G. Durand <dgd@cs.bu.edu>
- Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 11:13:40 -0400
- To: w3c-sgml-wg@w3.org
At 8:27 AM 9/27/96, James Clark wrote: >See the definition of record in 8879 (clause 4.252). I don't think it >leaves any doubt that a record is intended to correspond to an input-line. Quote of definitional text (emphasis mine): 4.252 Record: A division of an SGML entity bounded by a record start and a record end character, _normally_ corresping to an input line on a text-entry device. That "normally" is a hole that I think I'm justified in driving a truck through. I'll also note that, at least for the Mac, there is no notion of line, if we take Simpletext (supplied with every Mac by Apple) as the System's "text-entry device." In Simpletext CR is a paragraph delimiter, due to automatic word wrapping. This wrapping is not only a feature of most applications, but it is actually built into the system suypplied text-display and handling functions. This is just one example, but the uniformity of file handling in Unix suggests that '\n' is an application convention, and not a system feature (so we are even within our rights to ignore it). Also the notion of text-entry device is vacuous or at least ill-defined in the days of modern windowing systems. Will the Hollerith card never die? >James RE delenda est. -- David --------------------------------------------+-------------------------- David Durand dgd@cs.bu.edu | david@dynamicDiagrams.com Boston University Computer Science | Dynamic Diagrams http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/dgd/ | http://dynamicDiagrams.com/
Received on Friday, 27 September 1996 11:09:55 UTC