"snapshot" XHTML DTD for all current modules?

Hello, Mark, Shane, all.


In the process of making it easier for authors of XHTML to check their  
work, we've been looking at one specific type of document: XHTML  
documents not sporting a Doctype Declaration, but declaring the proper  
xhtml ns at their root element.

Something like:
http://qa-dev.w3.org/wmvs/HEAD/dev/tests/xhtml1-missing-doctype-has-xmlns.xhtml

Since the specifications for XHTML all require the presence of a  
doctype declaration for the document to be "strictly conforming" XHTML  
(1.0, 1.1, etc) such a document can not be "strictly conforming". Fair  
enough. But tools could still check it.

One idea that we had, was to build a DTD (and maybe an rng schema and  
xml schema too, why not) describing a "snapshot" of the aggregation of  
most known modules for XHTML.

Such a DTD could be interesting in itself. At this point in time, I am  
not aware of a DTD-friendly way of checking an XHTML document that  
uses both the features of ARIA and RDFa, for example.

Also, in the context of checking a document with the xhtml ns but no  
doctype, it would allow a tool to tell for sure if the document strays  
or not from the "xhtml realm".

Do you think:
* … it is a good idea?
* … you could provide some help in building such a snapshot DTD?
* … there would be a way to build this DTD in a way that allows easy  
addition of new modules?
   (my knowledge of modular xhtml is limited, so this may be a stupid  
question)


Any help or feedback from the the X(HT)ML/SGML experts on this list  
would also be much welcome.

Thank you,
olivier

Received on Monday, 5 May 2008 05:37:31 UTC