dpmkelly@swift.cs.tcd.ie (06/21/91)
Two things: I have heard from several sources that it is envisaged that only a limited number of DTDs will be available and that therefore documents will, in general, be tagged to conform to an existing DTD. The implication is that new DTDs will not be developed specifically to describe individual documents or even small groups of documents. In an admittedly cursory look at _The_SGML_Handbook_ I could not find any discussion of this topic; I wonder if anyone has any opinions or references? And... does anyone know of any attempts to convert existing documents to SGML format, either manually or automatically? References and/or discussion would be much appreciated. If people wish to e-mail to conserve bandwidth, I will summarise. Thanks, Dave. -- David Kelly, Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin.
erik@naggum.no (Erik Naggum) (06/22/91)
David Kelly <dpmkelly@swift.cs.tcd.ie> writes: | | I have heard from several sources that it is envisaged that only a | limited number of DTDs will be available and that therefore | documents will, in general, be tagged to conform to an existing DTD. | The implication is that new DTDs will not be developed specifically | to describe individual documents or even small groups of documents. | In an admittedly cursory look at _The_SGML_Handbook_ I could not find | any discussion of this topic; I wonder if anyone has any opinions | or references? It is certainly right that a limited number of DTD's will be _publically_ available, and that for interchange purposes, any of these will make the task of moving a document less arduous, if not completely automatic. This is not the same as prohibiting or dis- couraging DTD development according to more local or smaller needs than, say, the Association of American Publishers or the Department ofDefense. Quite the contrary, I would think. It is impossible to design an all-encompassing document type which suit all needs. (That is, before we all expire.) Local development of information struc- tures and coding conventions is going on all the time. There is no central regulatory agency which mandates "a limited set" of data structures, or software applications. No such thing is envisaged with DTD's, either. Oh, some may think it would be nice if all the world was conforming to a small set of standards, but such is not the case. If you needed reassurance, I hope this has been it. :-) -- Erik Naggum Professional Programmer +47-2-836-863 Naggum Software Electronic Text <erik@naggum.no> 0118 OSLO, NORWAY Computer Communications <enag@ifi.uio.no>