Re: Bobby Applications (DTD comments)

At 1999-08-09 09:06 AM, Michael Cooper wrote:

>Here they are - the XML file and DTD file must be in the same folder, then
>open the XML file in an XML browser such as IE5. Alternatively, view the XML
>file in a text processor, somewhat less readable but it should be ok.
>Michael

Recall that names of elements and attributes in XML are case-sensitive.
The DTD uses lowercase for these, a common practice.
   waigl1990505r19990807.dtd

The XML sample of CAST use has those names as uppercase.
   waigl1990505r19990807.dtd

Some of the textual commentary uses uppercase names as well.

The DTD needs a DOCTYPE. I add it below, with representative content. 
It includes the name of the root element: guidelines, the reserved word
SYSTEM, and the SystemLiteral:

    <!DOCTYPE guidelines SYSTEM "waigl1990505r19990807.dtd">

The SystemLiteral is the URI of the local system version of the DTD,
in the same node of the file system as the documents that are tagged to it.
More generally the PublicLiteral is announced by the reserved word PUBLIC,
and provides the URI where this DTD is publicly available (but unregistered).
The PublicLiteral may have following it the SystemLiteral without the need 
to include the SYSTEM, as indicated below:

    <!DOCTYPE guidelines PUBLIC 
         "-//CAST//DTD Bobby Documentation of W3C Web Accessibility 
         Guidelines 19990505//EN"
        "waigl1990505r19990807.dtd">

Whitespace is normalized to a single space if a separator, else omitted, 
in the PublicLiteral.

The DTD has ID attributes, appropriate as targets for references,
but no way to reference them within the same document via any
attributes with IDREF. Likewise, there is no way to reference external
URLs, such as in the WAI guidelines/checkpoints themselves.

I'd like a comment <!-- ... --> included before each element indicating 
its intended semantics. There is no use of aprompt in the sample, and its 
semantics are unclear to me.

Here is the DTD, with my augmentations and questions in comments:
----

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE guidelines PUBLIC 
    "-//CAST//DTD Bobby Documentation of W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines 
        19990505//EN" 
    "waigl1990505r19990807.dtd">

<!ELEMENT guidelines (guideline+)>

<!-- Is there a meaningful guideline without a checkpoint? -->
<!ELEMENT guideline (checkpoint*)>
<!ATTLIST guideline id CDATA #REQUIRED
              title CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!-- Does any checkpoint have no technique for realizing it? -->
<!ELEMENT checkpoint (technique*)>
<!ATTLIST checkpoint id ID #REQUIRED
             title CDATA #REQUIRED >

<!--A technique without application has little meaning. It has no attributes, 
so it can only be a placeholder marker point. --> 
<!ELEMENT technique (application*)>

<!-- What is "partial" conformance? Can partial conformance still get a
rating? -->
<!ATTLIST technique id CDATA #REQUIRED
             title CDATA #REQUIRED
             conformance (full|partial|none) #REQUIRED
             rating (p1|p2|p3|none) #REQUIRED >

<!ELEMENT application (ease,rationale,aprompt*)>
<!ATTLIST application id CDATA #REQUIRED
             headline CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!ELEMENT ease EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST ease
              easetofix (easy|hard|medium) #REQUIRED>

<!--I believe that there is much more structure under rationale than just #PCDATA. Examples have paragraphs and lists, possibly any of the HTML stuff? 
-->
<!ELEMENT rationale (#PCDATA)>

<!--What are the aprompts for? Do they need attributes?-->
<!ELEMENT aprompt (#PCDATA)>
~


 
>
>Michael Cooper
>CAST, Inc.
>39 Cross St.
>Peabody, MA  01960
>Tel 978-531-8555 x265
>TTY 978-538-3110
>Fax 978-531-0192
>Email mcooper@cast.org
>http://www.cast.org/
>http://www.cast.org/bobby/
>

Regards/Harvey Bingham
Tel 781-862-6908
Email hbingham@acm.org

Received on Tuesday, 10 August 1999 20:58:58 UTC