> We could perhaps use SGML processing directives, e.g.
>
> <?include "http://foo.com/bar.html.inc">
>
> But note that a new content type is needed since the inclusion is a piece
> of a document, rather than a valid HTML document itself.
>
Two comments in reply:
1) A pox on processing instructions! If we had to use a
non-element SGML syntax, there is a perfectly good SGML
mechanism -- external entities -- for handling just this
kind of thing:
<!ENTITY foobar SYSTEM "http://foo.com/bar.html.inc">
&foobar;
If/when the URL is updated, only the entity declaration
would need to be redefined. But this would require
HTML browsers to be able to parse still more SGML.
Not necesarily a goal of this working group.
2) A more viable solution might be to introduce an <INCLUDE> element.
<DL> ....
<DT> foobar
<DD> <INCLUDE ID=foobar NAME="foobar" HREF="http://foo.com/bar.html.inc"
REL="subdoc" REV="glossary"
TITLE="The definition of foobar is...">
Murray
P.S. Looking at the HTML 3.0 spec, I am surprised to see the REV
attribute missing from both <A> and <LINK>. Why is that?
I'm glad to see a list of values for REL, but I wonder why
each begins with a leading capital letter. Since case is
significant for these attribute values, according to the DTD,
I would suggest that lower-case values be used. In fact, I wonder
whether we need to discuss that as a design principle.
Hmmm! Come to think of it, I don't think that we (HTML WG)
have any articulated and documented design principles.
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Murray C. Maloney Internet: murray@sco.com
Technical Publications Writer/Architect Uucp: ...uunet!sco!murray
SCO Canada, Inc. My Phone: (416) 960-4031
130 Bloor Street West, 10th Floor Fax: (416) 922-2704
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1N5 SCO Phone: (416) 922-1937
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Disclaimer: I'm speaking for myself. 'T ain't nobody else to blame but me.
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Sponsor member of Davenport Group (ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/davenport/)
Member of IETF HTML Working Group
Member of SGML Open Internet and WWW Technical Committee
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