[xml/sgml] some thoughts, namely about xml catalogs - documentary grammars / "metagrammars"

[Sean Champ]

'Spam fun' aside, I'm not sure how to put this, or how it could be
applicable upon Debian SGML/XML policy. It's a thought, though:


There are more 'documentary grammar' formats than the SGML/XML DTD


Others:

1) XML Schemas 
   - somewhere at http://www.w3.org/ 

2) RELAX NG (Compact or {formal?} syntax) 
    - http://relaxng.org/ should be the URL for it




I'm not "posolutely sure", as to what  support there'd be, in the/an
XML catalogs standard -- support/allowance for: Documentary
grammar files, not necessarily DTDs; I've not a great amount of time,
to make this "a reasearch to-do item", here -- might "get to it",
ever, later.



One tangential though:

Something like "an XSD/RNC/... catalog ... system"  would require
support, in the "user/editing agent", for the configuration data and
the general procedures, designed for  the catalog system;  such could
be nifty --  "beyond the DTD", something that would allow for the fact
that an HTTP connection is not always  feasible, from the host where
an appliation woud be running, and so, not always can {an XML schema
file, an RNG file, or what-else} be 'checked', for ensuring "validity
of the document".




"FYI" - whether this would towards a glossary or else, there are two
formal terms, sometimes occurring, about XML documents; the W3C,
somewhere, has normative definitions for these terms, and explanations
-- probably in the core XML standard; "pardon thelack of refs. here" :


 1) Well Formed (said of a document / fragment)
 2) Valid (also said of a document / fragment)


I don't know the formal definitions of both, but it seems, a
'well-formed' document probably has to be 'valid', first; a 'valid'
document may be not well-formed; a 'valid' (as in compliance with the
syntax and language-grammars of XML, I suppse) a 'valid' document may
still be used -- conceivably -- "to whatever extent", regardless of
whether or not it is, in all, "well formed"




I'm concerned, either: MSFT (Microsoft - MSFT is their "stock-ticker"
symbol) has some interest, invested about XML; I don't like MSFT. Some
discourse, about XML/SGML, in Debian space, remains nonetheless
feasible.





So, like, "hello, list; this is not spam, for the day"


---
Sean Champ