Do the elements need a prefix? I’ve used <xmlelement> and <xmlatt> to describe elements and attributes in markup languages that aren’t XML – usually HTML, but also things like Apache Freemarker directives. I think <element> and <attribute>
are probably too generic, but I’d prefer names that weren’t bound so tightly to XML.
Chris
From: <> on behalf of Eliot Kimber <>
Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 10:20 AM
To: Jang <>, DITA Technical Committee <>
Subject: Re: [dita] Question about xml mention domain
Hmm, the XML spec does seem to be clear:
“Names beginning with the string "xml", or with any string which would match
(('X'|'x') ('M'|'m') ('L'|'l')), are reserved for standardization in this or future versions of this specification.”
https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#sec-well-formed
So the element types “xmlelement”, “xmlatt”, “xmlnsname”, and “xmlpi” would appear to be technically non-conforming. However, I find it interesting that no-one (myself included, who certainly should have remembered this aspect of the XML
spec since I was a member of the XML Working Group) and no XML parser has ever flagged this, so it’s clearly not enforced. Likewise, with the advent of namespaces, the need to reserve local names is largely removed so the actual practical value of this aspect
of the XML spec is minimal.
That said, it would probably be appropriate to correct this in DITA 2.0. An easy fix would be to replace “xml” with a domain-specific prefix, e.g. “xd”, and add that prefix to the other element type names in the domain.
But since it clearly causes no actual practical problems as far as we know, I don’t see a need to do anything for DITA 1.x.
Cheers,
E.
--
Eliot Kimber
http://contrext.com
From: <> on behalf of Jang Graat <>
Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 8:58 AM
To: DITA Technical Committee <>
Subject: [dita] Question about xml mention domain
After putting a picture of my self-designed <XMLennial/> T-shirt on FB, it was brought to my attention that this element name is invalid, as it starts with “xml”. I checked this on W3schools and the remark seems to be correct, unless there
have been changes to the standard or its interpretation. Any tag name is legal except when it starts with either ‘xml’, ‘XML’, ‘html’ or ‘HTML’.
What does this mean for the tag names in the XML mention domain? If these are illegal against the XML syntax we have a problem, which would have to be corrected for DITA 2.0.
Kind regards
Jang F.M. Graat
Smart Information Design
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Cell: +31 646 854 996
