- From: David G. Durand <dgd@cs.bu.edu>
- Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 10:47:39 -0500
- To: w3c-sgml-wg@w3.org
At 6:23 AM -0500 6/20/97, Digitome Ltd. wrote: >I am *really* happy that a PE-ectomy is being considered for XML.Their >complexity of implementation and explanation are at odds with the bulk >of the XML spec. and the famous "spirit" of XML. Would parameter entities that worked like the C preprocessor be too complex? I don't think so... >Many people with SGML will stick with SGML as their data format for many >good reasons. They will down-translate to target XML. In this down-translation >they have many issues to deal with - not just PEs. I say this is good, right >and proper. If we complicate XML too much to accomodate existing SGML >we risk alienating the pioneers currently hitching up their wagons and >preparing to head west. I say, making [SGML->XML] more complex >is infinitely better than making [XML->Future Apps] more complex. I want to use XML instead of SGML for many tasks -- losing parameter entities will make that close to impossible for me. Since the mess around PEs is due to their funny syntactic restrictions, I suggest that their high utility argues for removing the syntactic restrictions, not the feature. PEs as curently defined are also one fo the last things making a simple LEX/YACC style implementation of XML trivial -- since PE substitution could move into a separate input pass if they did not have contextual limits on occurrence. _And it would be much easier to explain to *users*._ There is something rotten in PEs, and it's not their existence.... -- 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/ MAPA: mapping for the WWW \__________________________
Received on Friday, 20 June 1997 11:05:39 UTC