HTML 2.0 LAST CALL: DOCTYPEs

Andrew McRae (mcrae@elmer.harvard.edu)
Thu, 1 Jun 95 23:57:38 EDT

OK, so I'm one of those evil people who mailed Dan rather than the list.
Sorry. :(

For context, I've appended Dan's reply to me to the end of this message.
The problem at issue is getting the list of DOCTYPEs in sect. 4 properly
related to the feature test entities in the DTD. (Some outstanding
queries are against the left margin, in [].)

How about something like this for the start of section 4:
-------------------- cut here ----------------------------
4. Document Structure

To identify information as an HTML document conforming to
this specification, each document should start with one
of the following document type declarations.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">

This document type declaration refers to the HTML DTD
which appears in section 8.1.

NOTE - If the body of a `text/html' message entity does
not begin with a document type declaration, an HTML
user agent should infer the above document type
declaration.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Level 2//EN">

This document type declaration also refers to the HTML DTD
which appears in section 8.1.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Level 1//EN">

This document type declaration refers to the HTML DTD with
the HTML.Forms entity defined as IGNORE rather than INCLUDE.
Documents which contain FORM elements do not conform to
that DTD, and must not use the above document type declaration.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Level 0//EN">

This document type declaration refers to the HTML DTD with both
the HTML.Forms and the HTML.Highlighting entities defined as
IGNORE rather than INCLUDE. Documents which contain FORM
elements or character highlighting elements do not conform to
that DTD, and must not use the above document type declaration.

[level 0 doesn't appear in the current
draft, except in the entity catalogue.
Maybe that's deliberate, though.]

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Strict//EN">
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN">
[do we need the second?]

These two document type declarations refer to the HTML DTD
with the HTML.Recommended entity defined as INCLUDE
rather than IGNORE; that is, they refer to the more
structurally rigid definition of HTML.

[do we need "Strict Level 1", etc.?
Should the public identifiers in this
list include all those in the
sample entity catalogue?]

HTML user agents are required to support all of the above
document type declarations.

They are not required to support other document types, but
they may. In particular, they may support other formal
[ etc.]

------------------------ end here --------------------
If people think this is a change that doesn't need to be made, I guess
that's fine.

Cheers,
Andrew.

--
Andrew McRae <andrew_mcrae@harvard.edu>

On Thu, 1 Jun 1995, Daniel W. Connolly wrote:

> In message <Pine.SUN.3.91.950601150927.13894A-100000@elmer.harvard.edu>, Andrew > McRae writes: > >Sect. 4, "Document Structure", of the May 31 HTML RFC draft claims to > >give an exhaustive list of the document type declarations which HTML user > >agents are required to support. The following declaration: > > > > <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN"> > > > >_doesn't_ appear in the list, but appears in section 2.2.6 and in the > >"example of use" comment near the start of the DTD. > > I fixed this example and several others. > > >I also note that there doesn't seem to be an explicit statement of how > >the different DOCTYPEs (or the "levels" of HTML) relate to the feature > >test entities in the DTD. > > Quite right. No suggested text huh? Making me work, hun? > > How about this for the next draft: > > |The <code/Strict/ public identifier refers to the HTML DTD with the > |<code/HTML.Recommended/ entity defined as <code/INCLUDE/ rather than > |<code/IGNORE/; that is, it refers to the more structurally rigid > |definition of HTML. (see <hdref refid=feature-test>). > > Dan >