"For Interoperability"

[John Cowan]

Here's another of my lists.  This one is of those things that are
mildly discouraged in XML because they aren't interoperable with old
SGML tools.

1. If an element is declared EMPTY, always use <tag/> rather than
<tag></tag>.

2. If an element is not declared EMPTY but has in fact no content,
always use <tag></tag> rather than <tag/>.

3. Don't reference parameter entities in content models that
are empty, or begin or end with "|" or ",".

4. Don't use multiple ATTLIST declarations for a given element type.

5. Don't declare an attribute in more than one ATTLIST declaration.

6. Don't use ATTLIST declarations that don't declare any attributes.

7. Don't declare two different enumerated attributes that have
overlapping possible values.

8. Always declare the entities amp, lt, gt, quot, and apos if
you reference them.

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan at ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)

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