RE: DTD for XForms

Hi Roman,

there is no DTD for XForms, and possibly there never will be. XForms is
the first major W3C project where mixing of different namespaces is an
integral part of the language. In an average XForms document according
to the latest public specification, you will see at least four
namespaces:
 - the host language (say, XHTML)
 - XForms native elements
 - XLink elements
 - XML Schema elements - if you are lucky, only from the "XML Schema
Definition Language" namespace, possibly also from "XML Schemas for
Instances".
Building a DTD would first of all lock XForms into one host language.
(In other words: you may see DTDs for the combination of XForms with
specific host languages appear, but "THE" XForms DTD just isn't
possible.)
Next, the DTD mechanism itself doesn't really work well with multiple
namespaces. It is possible to develop such a DTD, but it's a lot of
work. Have a look at the XHTML DTD Modularization if you don't believe
me :-)
Last but not least, a XForms processor will need a certain understanding
of XML Schema anyway, because parts of Schema are needed in order to
validate the instance.

Schemas were developed for a reason (actually, for three reasons: add
strong datatyping, move the mechanism to plain XML syntax and provide
extensibility/namespace mixing), so it's just fair to prefer them now
that we need all these pieces.

Hope it helps,

Josef
--
Mozquito Technologies
Reforming the Web
http://www.mozquito.com 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roman Huditsch [mailto:r.huditsch@hico.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 3:43 PM
> To: www-forms@w3.org
> Subject: DTD for XForms
> 
> 
> Is there any DTD for XForms, which I can refer to in my xhtml-file as
> well?
> 
> Greetings,
> Roman 
> 
> > Roman Huditsch (RH ) 
> > 
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>

Received on Wednesday, 4 July 2001 10:20:31 UTC