More syntax details in HTML 2.0?

Daniel W. Connolly (connolly@beach.w3.org)
Wed, 14 Jun 95 08:44:20 EDT

I asked a few members of the web consortium staff, and I got very
strong feedback from folks with generally solid technical backgrounds
who were somewhat new to the HTML spec that the spec is incomplete: it
defers too much to the SGML spec, especailly on lexical issues:
delimiter recognition, tag ommission, treatment of whitespace; that
sort of thing. The bottom line is: you can't pick up the HTML spec and
write an HTML parser without becoming an SGML priest.

Now that I think about it, I think this complaint has been lodged
in this forum many times, and I've turned a deaf ear to some extent.

But I think it has finally sunk in: the stuff about "tokenization"
needs to be expanded to be as detailed as a lex specification.

So, barring objections from this working group, I'm going to make
another revision to address this issue. I expect it will take a week
to write and a week to review. So the target would be June 26 or so.

Daniel W. Connolly "We believe in the interconnectedness of all things"
Research Technical Staff, MIT/W3C
<connolly@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/People/Connolly