DTD's in external Entities?

[David Brownell]

Binesh Bannerjee wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 26 Aug 1999, David Brownell wrote:
> 
> > External entities may not have DTDs.  They also may not have
> > standalone='...'" attributes in their text declarations.  In
> > both cases, the XML spec requires fatal errors to be reported;
> > unless, that is, you've got a non-validating processor which
> > isn't reading the external entity!
> >
> > If you find an "XML" processor which supports the nesting that
> > you're trying, return it to the vendor for a full refund ... ;-)
> 
> OK... But, then how _do_ you go about including another document
> inside your own? Or can a valid document _not_ include another
> valid document? 

Valid documents may not include other valid documents.  "You can't
do that ...".


>	Must I create invalid document fragments and
> separate DTD's if I just want to blend them all into a single
> document?
> 
> (Since the absence of a DTD makes a doc not valid, right?)

External entities are by definition not valid documents; they
may never have a DTD ("<!DOCTYPE ...>") declaration. 

The question to ask about external entities is whether they are
well formed _as external entities_ ... they're basically "content"
(what you'd find inside an element -- text, zero-to-N elements,
comments, PIs) with an optional text declaration (which can be as
minimal as "<?xml encoding='US-ASCII'?>"; encoding is required).

- Dave

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