Re: LSB SGML/XML appendix: finding the DTD
/ Eric Bischoff <e.bischoff@noos.fr> was heard to say:
[...]
| mechanisms. And it would also mean that Norm and OASIS specialized
| committees efforts on XML catalogues were useless. I'm not sure they
| would appreciate. So far I've always attempted that the LSB
| appendix on SGML and XML is only a more specific subset of what
| OASIS committees had decided.
|
| Norm? Help !!! ;-)
Uhm, ok. :-)
I really think using the URLs as part of the filename is a grotesque
hack. But I don't dispute that it would achieve a useful goal.
You're basically using the filesystem as a sort of odd catalog.
Entity resolvers, such as the catalog based ones that OASIS is working
on, have features and benefits beyond the simple redirection of DTDs.
1. They work across all platforms. The LSB and Linux distributions may
not particularly care about Windows or the Mac, but users do and
stylesheet authors do, and implementors of tools often do.
2. They're much more flexible than what you're proposing. It's possible,
for example, to test Version X+1 of a DTD by creating a special catalog
that points the Version X public (or system) identifiers to Version X+1
and running all your existing documents through it.
In a multi-user environment, you can't go f*cking with the symlinks to
achieve this because you'll break everyone else's environment while
you're testing.
3. Users can update them without being able to write to protected parts
of the filesystem.
4. They work for both URIs and external identifiers. For example, I'm
going to be sorely tempted to change
<xsl:import href="/sourceforge/docbook/xsl/html/docbook.xsl"/>
to
<xsl:import href="urn:publicid:something:I:construct"/>
once the urn:publicid namespace is accepted and the catalog mechanism
is widely deployed. (Speaking of the urn:publicid namespace, the most
recent draft[1] outlines our plan for getting public identifiers
properly into the web architecture.)
5. Catalogs have the backing of a standards body. They work for both SGML
and XML. And they will be supported by commercial tools (XMetaL and Epic,
at least, presumably).
You've got to get implementors to change things to support either
catalogs or your filesystem hacks. I think you're likely to get a lot
more support for the former than the latter. And the latter is an ugly
hack. IMHO, of course.
Be seeing you,
norm
[1] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/spec-2001-05-17.html#s.semantics
--
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com> | Resist the urge to hurry; it will only
http://nwalsh.com/ | slow you down--Bruce Eckel
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