MIRROR for external entity references in XML?

I just spent some time looking over the XML docs, and got to
thinking a bit. In section 4.2, the example for parameter
entity references is as follows:

<!ENTITY % ISOLat2
           SYSTEM "http://www.xml.com/iso/isolat2-xml.entities" >
  %ISOLat2;

Assuming that Bob Metcalfe is right about the death of the Net,
or at least its slow grinding descent into saturation, wouldn't
it make sense to allow for unreachable hosts with a MIRROR alt
for external refs? 

I guess you could use RMD NONEs or INTERNALs for standard content,
but what about external DTD references that have been declared as 
RMD ALL?

How to handle unreachables?

In section 4.3.2, I see:

"In addition to a system literal, an external identifier may include
 a public identifier. An XML processor may use the public identifier
 to try to generate an alternative URL. If the processor is unable to
 do so, it must use the URL specified in the system literal."

This will wreak havoc if we continue to get the same kind of response
times I've been getting from Mindspring lately :)

Steve


--
Steven Champeon                 |    Negative forces have value.
http://www.hesketh.com/schampeo |          - Henry Adams

Received on Wednesday, 16 April 1997 01:16:43 UTC