Re: Come 'n Get it: A DTD for current practice in HTML

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Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 17:42:58 --100
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From: "Daniel W. Connolly" <connolly@hal.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <www-talk@www0.cern.ch>
Subject: Re: Come 'n Get it: A DTD for current practice in HTML 
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In message <9404071355.AA09320@hummingbird.syl.nj.nec.com>, pel@syl.nj.nec.com 
writes:
>  I cut my HTML teeth by using the above primer and was doing very well
>at it.  That is, until I joined this fine group ;-)
>  No one ever told me that I should "validate" my documents with
>some SGML validator.  We must remember that the people on this list
>constitute the elite of WWW and HTML.  Expecting all HTML authors
>to now go out and gather these tools AND make them write conforming
>*SGML* documents seems unrealistic.

I'm hoping folks will validate their documents. I can't require it.

What I'm looking for is some formal description of a document format
that I can implement and productize with a certain level of confidence
that I will be supporting most of the stuff out there on the web.

If this DTD (plus some minor tweaks and cleanup based on feedback) is
published, we will have something so that implementors and authors can
check their work if they so desire.

>  If you are going to place added "requirements" on people, please:
>	- bundle all of the tools together (sgmls, the dtd, etc)
>	- provide binaries (i.e. like X Mosaic)
>	- update the primers
>	- provide lots of examples of conforming documents
>	and finally...
>	- place them in a well known place

Good idea. I may or may not have resources to do this. I hope that
places like CERN and NCSA will help out with this part.

>Remember, until *affordable* tools are available, we pretty much have
>to write our documents by hand.

Yes... it is the task of "the elite of WWW and HTML" to provide
affordable tools to promote the mechanisms and standards we publish.

Dan