Re: SGML/XML Policy Group - XML Catalog Update
Mark Johnson <mrj@debian.org> writes:
> Sure. It'd naturally have to be part of xml-base. Also, I've written a
> customization layer for the XML Catalog spec dtd that provides support
> for directives from the previous OASIS TR9401 (aka SGML) catalog
> spec. This should make the conversion from TR9401 to XML Catalog
> entries a bit easier.
Which directives are missing that you considered desirable?
Why is conversion from TR9401 to XML catalogs something we should
worry about? Seems like extra work given that most software will ship
with XML catalogs anyhow.
Are we going to be tightly constrained by what directives in XML
catalogs are currently understood by the tools?
Remember, we're the integrators, not the people maintaining the
tools. We do rather have to follow the limitation of current
tools...
> When all is said and done, I think Debian is also going to need to
> provide network-accessible dtds (if we already don't), by defining a
> special subdir on a debian webserver. In this way we can provide
> persistent URLs for debian-specific dtds and other xml resources (such
> as stylesheet customizations, etc.)
>
> Something along the lines of "http://www.debian.org/xml/..."; ought to
> suffice.
Ok, you should qualify this by saying that any Debian-specific XML
stuff would need this treatment. There's no need to provide a stable
network URL for things that are shipped by other folks, and we don't
really have the manpower to make that commitment anyhow.
But is there any Debian-specific XML customizations or DTDs or
entities or anything yet?
> Anyway, those are some general thoughts.
>
> Delusional as I am, I believe the catalog structure/content policy (as
> in what elements should be allowed in which level catalogs) that I'll
> propose tomorrow makes good sense in that it minimizes parsing of
> catalogs so that the _only_ catalog that gets fully parsed is exactly
> the catalog that is needed. (Modulo things I've missed, of course.)
Ok, I'll have to wait for what you're going to send, but I already
shuddering. It seems like a lot of work. My approach is to do as
little work as possible -- we have plenty of things to do and don't
need to invent new technologies, IMHO.
I think what Ardo is trying to do, and which I agree with, is to adapt
the update-catalog tool from the Gnome XML tools and adapt that with
as thin a shim as possible for the purposes of centralized XML catalog
registration. This would be pretty much as good, but not much better,
than the SGML catalog registration. But, IMHO, the existing SGML
catalog registration is good enuf (at least, for a first pass).
--
...Adam Di Carlo..<adam@onshore-devel.com>...<URL:http://www.onshored.com/>
Reply to: