Re: HyTime support in HTML

James D Mason (MASONJD@oax.a1.ornl.gov)
Thu, 09 Mar 1995 14:39:00 -0500 (EST)

Adding HyTime support to the DTD might make the DTD more complex, but it might
not make the end user's job more complex/confusing. Most of what HyTime does
involves attribute values that the end user might have little contact with.
It's like the ICADD issue (indeed, the ICADD material was set up using HyTime
techniques): having the attributes in the DTD makes additional processing
possible without necessitating changes to instance documents. Someone with
existing documents or someone creating new documents need not know that the
ICADD attributes exist at all, while someone with a use for them can process
the documents without depending on user input.

(Of course, there are also some interesting things that can be done with
HyTime attributes if the user wants to get involved with them, but that's not
a necessity in all applications.)

Dr. James D. Mason
(ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG8 Convenor)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Information Management Services
Bldg. 2506, M.S. 6302, P.O. Box 2008
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6302 U.S.A.
Telephone: +1 615 574-6973
Facsimile: + 1 615 574-6983
Network: masonjd @ ornl.gov