Using RELAX NG in XHTML 2.0

[ speaking as an editor of XHTML2 schemas, not reqresenting the WG's view ]

glazman@netscape.com (Daniel Glazman) wrote:

> Sorry, but I still do not like XHTML 2.0. By the way, it __kills__ me to see
> that a W3C WG is releasing a W3C Draft with no XML DTD, based on the W3C Rec
> XML, nor any Schema based on the W3C XML Schema Rec, but only a RELAX NG
> implementation based on an OASIS spec. Is it a really **W3C** Working Group ?

You must have been killed already when the RDF Core WG published
the revised RDF/XML Syntax Specification with only RELAX NG schema [1],
so I'm afraid we cannot kill you again.

Seriously, as I indicated long time ago [2,3], that's one of reasons
why I prioritized the development of RELAX NG schema for XHTML 2.0 over
other schemas, as lots of people cry out for solution(s) to the "RDF in
XHTML" problem, and in particular for embedding RDF/XML, if RDF/XML
only provides RELAX NG schema, it seems straighforward to write up
RELAX NG schema for XHTML 2.0 and investigate possible solutions.
I demonstrated a way to embed RDF/XML into XHTML 2.0 together with
other vocabularies like MathML, SVG, EGIX, ContactXML, HLink and XML
Character Entities, and still validate, using RELAX NG and Modular
Namespaces (MNS) [4].

And as indicated in the Status of This Document section, we do plan
to provide DTD and XML Schema in later drafts [5]:

    This version includes an early implementation of XHTML 2.0 in
    RELAX NG [RELAXNG], but does not include the implementations
    in DTD or XML Schema form. Those will be included in subsequent
    versions, once the content of this language stabilizes.

We published the HLink draft with module implementations in DTD, RELAX NG
and XML Schema [6], and the next draft of XFrames will also include
module implementations in DTD, RELAX NG and XML Schema.  The WG has
no intention to abandon DTD or XML Schema.

We are aware that you insisted "the lack of DTD is a very big problem.
The HTML WG should not release other XHTML WD without DTD" [7], on
the other hand, other people requested to provide some sort of
machine-readable schema earlier than later, so rather than holding up
the draft publication until we can write up DTD modules (if at all
it's possible), we chose to keep public informed by publishing drafts
periodically and include other module implementations when they
become mature.  I apologize for the lack of DTD and XML Schema in
this draft, but developing modular DTDs and XML Schemas require
considerable amount of time and energy, and at this stage stabilizing
the language design has higher priority than providing multiple module
implementations.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-rdf-syntax-grammar-20011218/#section-RELAXNG-Schema
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2002Aug/0199
[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2002Aug/0208
[4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2003Mar/0038
[5] http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xhtml2-20030506/#status
[6] http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-hlink-20020913/#a_module_definition
[7] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2003Apr/0212

Regards,
-- 
Masayasu Ishikawa / mimasa@w3.org
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium

Received on Tuesday, 13 May 2003 04:09:01 UTC