DTD is special, sadly. It got lodged in the XML spec in the early days, too
deeply to be excised now, a legacy of SGML I think? There seems to have
been an insistence on making validity a property of the document, rather
than a separate concern, as it is w/XSD and others. Probably someone older
and wiser can give you a more complete explanation.
-Mike
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mukul Gandhi [mailto:]
> Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2009 5:49 AM
> To: Michael Kay
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: [xml-dev] XML spec and XSD
>
> Thanks, Mike for your remarks.
>
> On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 3:59 PM, Michael Kay <> wrote:
> > It's a basic issue of architectural layering. XSD has a
> dependency on
> > XML, XML has no dependency on XSD. Nothing in the XML spec
> is affected
> > if XSD changes.
> >
> > It's bad enough when you're writing a spec tracking the changes in
> > technologies you depend on (like Unicode). Introducing unnecessary
> > dependencies for pedagogic or marketing reasons would be a very bad
> > thing to do.
>
> Looking at your view points above, I agree to them as good
> architectural principles while writing W3C specs.
>
> But I feel, that mentioning XSD as a validation technology
> for XML documents, in the XML spec is perhaps a good idea
> since DTD is also mentioned in the XML spec (which is also a
> XML validation technology).
> I feel, doing so doesn't promote any pedagogic or marketing
> attitudes towards XSD.
>
> Reading the XML spec, gives us a feeling (to me at least, I
> guess) that DTD is the most important technology for
> validating XML. Even if we don't mention specific versions of
> XSD as validating language for XML documents (in specific XML
> standards, like 1.0 5th edition or XML 1.1), I think it's
> good to mention in references of the XML spec (I believe, a
> normative reference to this would also be good in the XML
> spec), that XSD is also another XML validation technology
> from W3C, which achieves the same task as DTDs do. I think,
> referring to the link, http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema in XML
> specs would serve the purpose I am suggesting.
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Mukul Gandhi
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> _________
>
> XML-DEV is a publicly archived, unmoderated list hosted by
> OASIS to support XML implementation and development. To
> minimize spam in the archives, you must subscribe before posting.
>
> [Un]Subscribe/change address: http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/
> Or unsubscribe:
> subscribe: List archive:
> http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
> List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php
>
>
