> > What can you get from an SGML parser to build the image and the internal structure
> > of an HTML document in a browser? The answer is: everything you can get from your
> > parser now PLUS the validation PLUS information from the DTD PLUS the ability to
> > evolve more quickly towards future releases of HTML.
>
> what good does the validation give you?
> what good is the information from the DTD?
>
> why should someone do a difficult migration now just to make future
> migrations easier? Wait until there's something significantly better.
>
> My friends write HTML parsers in PERL and Common Lisp, and can't use
> your YASP or SP.
When you have a validation service it means that you are sure your document
instance conforms to the model (the DTD). This is useful to write for
instance conversion tools to migrate from one DTD to another. When you have
a correct document instance the conversion process is easier because the rules
to express the conversion are straight forward.
The information from the DTD will give you all the element types and attributes
(among other things). They are interesting once again to write tools more
easily. And also to help developers build nicer user interfaces for editors...
Regarding the migration problem I prefer (I know it's personal :-) to do
something difficult in the first place if I know that my future will be
easier. But this is only my opinion...
Did your friends take a look at the APIs from the parsers? They write
HTML parsers and what I am saying is that the parsers are already written.
The only difficulty would be to understand their API. An HTML parser will
allow you to identify the tagged elements it encounters in a document and
the attributes and the content. Then you associate some actions with these
events from the parser. This is exactly the same thing in an SGML parser.
Christophe
-- Christophe Espert - E-mail: espert@cln46fw.der.edf.fr ======================================================================== EDF - DER | High Text 1, Avenue du General de Gaulle | 5, rue d'Alsace 92141 Clamart CEDEX - FRANCE | 75010 Paris - FRANCE Tel: 33.1.47.65.43.21 ext. 6635 | Tel: 33.1.42.05.93.15 Fax: 33.1.47.65.50.07 | Fax: 33.1.42.05.92.48 ISO 8879:1986 - SGML | ISO/IEC 10744:1992 - HyTime | ISO/DIS 10179 DSSSL