HTML4.0: comment on terminology in sgmltut

At http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-html40/intro/sgmltut.html
under the heading "Attributes" it says:

| By default, SGML requires you to delimit all attribute values using 
| either double quotation marks (") or single quotation marks (').  
| Single quote marks can be included within the attribute value when the
| value is delimited by double quote marks, and vice versa. You may also
| use numeric character entities to represent double quotes (") and
| single quotes ('). For double quotes you can also use the named
| character entity ".

I think it would be more correct to use the proper names of these
characters as laid down in the standards documents, i.e "quotation mark"
and "apostrophe", see e.g
http://www.unicode.org/Unicode.charts/normal/U+0000.html

I would have no objection to adding these informal names ("double quote"
and "single quote") as a didactic aid, but I think it's quite wrong in
this kind of context to omit the names that are laid down in formal
standards. 

Also, I was rebuked by an SGML-er for using the incorrect terminology
"numeric entities" instead of the proper term "character references",
and I pass on that rebuke accordingly ;-}  Actually, I think it's
quite a reasonable self-explanatory term, even if it _is_ wrong...


So, I would want the paragraph to read e.g as follows...

 By default, SGML requires you to delimit all attribute values using
 either quotation marks (") or apostrophes (') (also loosely known as
 "double quotes" and "single quotes" resp.).  Apostrophes can be
 included within the attribute value when the value is delimited by
 quotation marks, and vice versa. You may also use numeric character
 references to represent quotation marks (") and apostrophes
 ('). For quotation marks you can also use the named character
 entity ". 

What does Chris Maden think about that last sentence, I wonder?

best regards

Received on Saturday, 12 July 1997 09:30:21 UTC