Re: productions [NS 1, 10, 11, 17]

Tim Bray wrote:
> 
> At 04:40 PM 8/16/98 -0700, David Brownell wrote:
> 
> >2.  Careful reading of this text draws the conclusion, which I hope
> >    is a bug, that namespace declarations may not be placed in DTDs.
> 
> I just reviewed the grammar, and don't see how we have a problem.
> The DefaultDecl contains an AttValue, so what's wrong?

The NSDef production isn't used except as a pattern -- one that can
only show up literally in EmptyElemTag and STag productions, never
in AttlistDecl.  The focus is on "NSDef", not on "PrefixDef" which
could show up in an AttlistDecl.

I'd normally specify such stuff outside the grammar, since the
grammar (as modified to know about QNames) needn't change.  The
productions in section 2 could be replaced with text that goes
more or less like:

	A family of reserved attribute names is used to declare
	namespaces.  That family consists of (i) the reserved
	attribute name "xmlns", (ii) all attribute names using
	the reserved "xmlns" prefix.

That'd not be subject to any misinterpretation or ambiguity,
since it'd apply anywhere an attribute name was used in the spec.
Also note that (i) corrects the misstatement in the first sentence
of section 2, which only covers (ii)!

- Dave

Received on Friday, 11 September 1998 09:40:07 UTC