DTD invented by Microsoft?!

[Simon North]

Giovanni Flammia wrote:

>  With XML, less is more. 

My 2 cents ... yes, and possibly even less than HTML. While it isn't 
(yet) an XML application, the HDML DTD gives a hint of how you can 
use a very meagre set of elements to create an application.

> if one has to learn
> full-blown SGML syntax and how to write DTDs, then most people who
> are afraid to get into SGML now (and are currently occasional users
> of SGML w/o dwelling into DTDs) will be also afraid to work with
> XML.

Why should we/they be exposed to it? ... come on, tool developers! 
Writing CSS style sheets (I'll leave DSSSL style sheets out of this), 
can be pretty complicated but there are some fair WYSIWYG 
tools coming on the market already. 

> If an XML document encodes detailed semantics about how to
> process its elements, 

But wasn't that the whole point of dropping LINK, LINKTYPE and 
USELINK? XML doesn't need the semantics, IMHO, these need to be 
provided externally to xml-lang; hence the need for XAPI.

> How does all this fit together?

Java?

> Shouldn't XML be specialized to expose just enough of the semantics
> necessary to improve indexing, searching, and multi-modal display of
> Web documents?

isn't it already?

Simon North - COSSAP Technical Writer, Synopsys
Synopsys GmbH, Kaiserstr. 100, 52134 Herzogenrath
Germany. +49 2407 955873 -- north at synopsys.com
Voice mail: +1 415 694 4141 55055

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