- From: Michael McCaleb <mccaleb@eeel.nist.gov>
- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 14:35:58 -0500
- To: xml-editor@w3.org
Dear XML editor, Below is a comment on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition). I hope this is useful. Sincerely, Mike McCaleb Problem: The specification uses EBNF throughout the document. However, EBNF is not mentioned or discussed until Section 6. Additionally, the specification does not state the purpose of the number (or number with a terminating letter) preceding each grammar rule. Proposed Solution 1: Add a section to the Introduction that explains that the grammar rules for the specification are written in EBNF and reference Section 6. Additionally, the purpose of the identifier in front of each grammar rule could be explained in this section. For example, 1.3 Formal Grammar The formal grammar for this specification is written in Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF) notation. For a description of EBNF, see Section 6, Notation. For reference purposes, each grammar rule that makes up this specification is preceded by a rule identifier (usually an integer) that uniquely identifies the rule within this specification. Note: No significance should be inferred from the values of the rule identifier. Proposed Solution 2: Reorder the sections so that the Notation section (currently section 6) immediately follows the Introduction (currently section 1). Additionally, an explanation of the rule identifiers could be added to the Notation section. ---------------------------------------------- <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC) [Netscape]"> <title>XML Comments.html</title> </head> <body> Dear XML editor, <p>Below is a comment on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition). I hope this is useful. <br> <p>Sincerely, <p>Mike McCaleb <br> <p> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <br><b>Problem:</b> The specification uses EBNF throughout the document. However, EBNF is not mentioned or discussed until Section 6. Additionally, the specification does not state the purpose of the number (or number with a terminating letter) preceding each grammar rule. <p><b>Proposed Solution 1:</b> Add a section to the Introduction that explains that the grammar rules for the specification are written in EBNF and reference Section 6. Additionally, the purpose of the identifier in front of each grammar rule could be explained in this section. For example, <blockquote><b>1.3 Formal Grammar</b> <p>The formal grammar for this specification is written in Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF) notation. For a description of EBNF, see Section 6, Notation. <p>For reference purposes, each grammar rule that makes up this specification is preceded by a rule identifier (usually an integer) that uniquely identifies the rule within this specification. <p><b>Note:</b> <p>No significance should be inferred from the values of the rule identifier.</blockquote> <p><br><b>Proposed Solution 2: </b>Reorder the sections so that the Notation section (currently section 6) immediately follows the Introduction (currently section 1). Additionally, an explanation of the rule identifiers could be added to the Notation section. <p> <hr WIDTH="100%"> </body> </html>
Received on Wednesday, 29 November 2000 14:35:10 UTC