Re: Documentation templates and references

[Joakim Ziegler <joakim styx net>]

On Wed, Jan 26, 2000 at 07:25:33PM +0100, Karl Eichwalder wrote:
> Joakim Ziegler <joakim@styx.net> writes:

>|   In fact, if you avoid this and a couple of other SGML-specific
>|   constructs, you'll be able to port the SGML documents to XML without
>|   any changes (except the header) when that day comes.
 
> . You'll have to change empty element tags nevertheless.

Not necessarily. For instance, <foo></foo> is just as valid as <foo/> for an
element defined as EMPTY. This is, I suspect, done to improve SGML
interoperability.


> . It will be easy to "convert" SGML documents to XML.

> . There will be no need to convert SGML documents; they will stay valid
>   forever :)

If tools and stylesheets change to become XML-centric, this need might arise.


> If a writer feels comfortable using SGML minimizations, he should be
> allowed to use these features.

I definitely think the use should be minimized, or even abandoned altogether.
It does nothing for readability, and the time savings are minimal.

But I'll leave that decision up to others.

-- 
Joakim Ziegler - styx research director - joakim@styx.net
FIX sysop - FIXmud admin - FIDEL & Conglomerate developer