RE: RDF in XHTML

> I have little belief that a general RDF-in-XHTML solution is necessary
> or even a good idea, and the discussions I've heard here have not

We hear you :-)  Some people think it is a fantastic idea, however, and
they haven't been convinced otherwise.  Is it possible to treat this is
a general issue, so that we don't have to convince one another?

> ad hoc basis. Criticisms of XHTML for not being able to XML-validate
> inclusions of any well-formed markup are out of order, insofar as *no*
> XML markup language can do that. It's as I've said a non-sequitor. The

Well, we could easily validate an XHTML document that had:

<metadata encoding="N3">
 .....
</metadata>

embedded in it, since N3 is not well-formed XML.  It is only when we
stick well-formed XML in there that the XML validation tries blindly to
"validate" it according to the XHTML DTD.  Perhaps I am simple-minded,
but I am still fascinated by the fact that this block can contain
anything *except* XML.  This isn't the fault of XHTML; rather it is a
peculiarity of DTDs.  This also is not a problem specific to RDF,
because I can use a:

<script language="some_well_formed_xml_scripting_language">
...
</script>

and break XHTML validation.  So I hope we can avoid treating this as a
"RDF should not exist anyway, so the restriction is fine" problem.

> only solution possible would be to CDATA section the whole thing, but
> then XML processors would treat it as CDATA rather than something with
> a notation of RDF. This would not be useful. External links to RDF is

Is this really a problem?  Maybe this is the best way to do it?  Does
anyone have any objections to using:

<metadata encoding="rdf">
<!CDATA[
 <rdf:rdf ..namespace declarations..>
  <rdf:Description about="" ... />
  <rdf:Description about="#someid" ... />
 </rdf:rdf>
]]>
</metadata>

Regards,
Joshua

Received on Monday, 16 April 2001 20:30:28 UTC