Re: XML catalog draft

> - bless the PUBLIC keyword & associated identifier

Yes.

> - make a decision as to what should be done when both PUBLIC and SYSTEM
>   are there [I can't recall detecting a consensus; did I just miss it?]

Since PUBLIC is likely to be a point of user-tailorability, it should be
looked at first -- implementations that don't implement PUBLIC resolution
will simply ignore the PUBLIC, thus causing it to "fail". I can't think of
a case where someone who _has_ working public resolution, would prefer to
use the system ID -- andif they did, it seems they could always ensure that
any given public ID (or all) would fail to resolve.

> - provide a pointer to TR9401 in the write-up on the PUBLIC identifier,
>   saying that this is one proven-in-practice way to resolve them

Since the new proposal is different from 9401 couldn't we issue it as the
W3C's equivalent of an "experimental RFC". ie. well-defined, a potential
candidate for standardization, but requiring practical experience before
endorsement. That seems to describe DELEGATE to a T.

> - improve support for catalogs by providing a special PI, as recommended
>   by a couple of WG-ers, to help define the BASE and thus find the
>   catalog
I would like this even more if it is possible for the base to look like this:

<?XML-BASE SYSTEM "http://www.foo.org/bar/">
<?XML-BASE PUBLIC "+//ISBN 9882-3::FOO//SGML bar stuff//EN"
                  "http://www.foo.org/bar/">

This would also allow things with PUBLIC IDs to announce their identifier
-- which would be a great virtue, I think.

> - investigate the problem of what seems like the unnecessary
>   restrictions on MINIMUM LITERAL; I don't think it's desirable to
>   say that a PUBLIC identifier can't be a URN, which this would do.

I _think_ without having the proposal in front of me, that we can use %escape
to handle this, and that may be the right thing until SGML fixes the
Minimum literal restrictions.

>I'm not sure what the right thing to do is with the current
>catalog proposal.  It seems to represent the best thinking, by the people
>who know, on how to get good mileage out of Socats; it would be a
>pity to lose that.  But at the moment it just doesn't seem like a good call
>to wire this into XML.

That may be so, but I think it should go out there, and experience will
tell _if_ it will need any changes.

  -- David

_________________________________________
David Durand              dgd@cs.bu.edu  \  david@dynamicDiagrams.com
Boston University Computer Science        \  Sr. Analyst
http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/dgd/   \  Dynamic Diagrams
--------------------------------------------\  http://dynamicDiagrams.com/
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Received on Tuesday, 11 February 1997 13:56:59 UTC