- From: William F. Hammond <hammond@csc.albany.edu>
- Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 17:08:26 -0400 (EDT)
- To: www-html@w3.org
> XHTML is an application of the XML, which means an XHTML document must
> be XML compliant.
As normally understood, this is correct.
There is, however, a small point in this regard that has significance
for issues now under deliberation in regard to the relation between
markup and transport content type.
When W3C provides a markup specification such as those in the HTML
family and those in the SGML family it is conscious defining a markup
and, rather than saying that it *is* an XML application (for XML forms
of HTML) or that it *is* an SGML application (for the classical forms
of HTML), it is actually providing a canonical means of associating
an SGML application or an XML application to the markup rules.
The practical consequence of this observation is that the canonical
authority (in this case W3C) reserves to itself the right to impose
rules in its specification that it might not otherwise be able,
consistent with the above phrases "SGML application" and "XML
application", be permitted to prescibe, such as, for example, the
limitation in the HTML 4.01 specification, section 7.1, of the
form of the document type definition.
-- Bill
Received on Tuesday, 3 July 2001 17:09:16 UTC