Take out the DTD Reference [Was: Trip Report: IETF meeting of HTML WG ]

Daniel W. Connolly (connolly@hal.com)
Tue, 13 Dec 94 13:17:38 EST

In message <94Dec13.022705pst.2757@golden.parc.xerox.com>, Larry Masinter write
s:
>
>> 5. It was suggested by more than one person that the IESG may not accept
>> the document if it includes the DTD reference, as this could be considered
>> 18 pages of essentially redundant (albeit useful) material.
>
>No, it was suggested that the longer it was, the longer it would take
>to process.

At a minimum, the DTD reference should be moved from section 3, the
"normative" part of the document, to an appendix of some sort. It was
always meant to be informative and redundant, not part of the
specification.

I'm sure there are ways to condense the information to fewer than 18
pages, at least in the postscript version.

Hmmm... a lot of folks can read the DTD reference easier than they can
read the DTD, so it helps in many cases.

But those same folks get confused with the inclusion and exclusion
exceptions, which are not accurately represented in the DTD reference.

Perhaps Earl Hood's dtd2html tools could be used to construct a more
concise and more accurate reference for the DTD.

Of course the minimalist in me says "take it out. It's fluff. This is
a spec, not a tutorial or user's guide."

Dan