Re: [Alexander Holt: XHTML: public identifier pollution?]

Alexander Holt wrote:
> 
> Hi there.  No one has reacted in any way I can detect to the following
> message, which I sent to <www-html@w3.org> in June.

Thanks for being dilligent.

We try to participate in www-html to some extent, but it's
tough to spot specific outstanding issues in a discussion
forum like that. For tracking
specific issues against a spec, it's important to use the
address given in the "status of this document" section.

"Please report errors in this document to www-html-editor@w3.org."
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/PR-xhtml1-19990824/

HTML editors, please do change the FPIs for the entity lists
in the XHTML DTDs as he suggests.

>  The XHTML 1.0 DTD at
> 
>     http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/strict.dtd
> 
> *still* misuses HTML public identifiers.  I think this should be fixed!
> I'm mailing you because you recently said in comp.lang.xml (quoting the
> W3C IPR FAQ):
> 
>    ... as long as you do not use the same formal public identifier for a
>    modified W3C DTD (which might confuse applications), ...
> 
> which so far as I can see is what has happened in this case.
> 
> If you are able to take a look at this -- just forwarding it someone who
> can actually change things would be great -- then many thanks in advance.
> 
> Alexander Holt
> University of Edinburgh
> <alexander.holt@ed.ac.uk>
> 
> ------- Forwarded Message
> 
> To: www-html@w3.org
> Cc: Richard Tobin <richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>,
>     "Henry S. Thompson" <ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
> Subject: XHTML: public identifier pollution?
> From: Alexander Holt <alexander.holt@ed.ac.uk>
> Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 12:08:45 +0200
> 
> The XHTML 1.0 DTDs include these entity declarations:
> 
>     <!ENTITY % HTMLlat1 PUBLIC
>        "-//W3C//ENTITIES Latin1//EN//HTML"
>        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/HTMLlat1x.ent">
>     <!ENTITY % HTMLsymbol PUBLIC
>        "-//W3C//ENTITIES Symbols//EN//HTML"
>        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/HTMLsymbolx.ent">
>     <!ENTITY % HTMLspecial PUBLIC
>        "-//W3C//ENTITIES Special//EN//HTML"
>        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/HTMLspecialx.ent">
> 
> Those formal public identifiers, however, are already used by the HTML
> 4.0 DTDs to refer to different things:
> 
>     <!ENTITY % HTMLlat1 PUBLIC
>        "-//W3C//ENTITIES Latin1//EN//HTML"
>        "http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424/HTMLlat1.ent">
>     <!ENTITY % HTMLsymbol PUBLIC
>        "-//W3C//ENTITIES Symbols//EN//HTML"
>        "http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424/HTMLsymbol.ent">
>     <!ENTITY % HTMLspecial PUBLIC
>        "-//W3C//ENTITIES Special//EN//HTML"
>        "http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424/HTMLspecial.ent">
> 
> Isn't this a needless source of confusion?  Wouldn't it be better for
> the XHTML FPIs to be distinct?  For example:
> 
>     "-//W3C//ENTITIES Latin1//EN//XHTML"
> 
> Alexander Holt
> University of Edinburgh
> <alexander.holt@ed.ac.uk>
> 
> ------- End of Forwarded Message


-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C
http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/
tel:+1-512-310-2971 (office, mobile)
mailto:connolly.pager@w3.org (put your tel# in the Subject:)

Received on Tuesday, 21 September 1999 13:07:47 UTC