I agree with Dave. As the author of the comment in the DTD, I can only say
that at the time that I wrote it, there were no external declaration sets
for XML character entities, and so I recommended direct reference. I would
not now. In fact I would not have then, had I had a better understanding of
the implications. In the next release of EAD, I will propose that EAD
recommend referencing external declarations of XML character entities. I
also favor the external declaration because it makes it rather easy to move
files between SGML and XML software, as it only involves switching the
external declarations. It also makes it easier to perform other
transformations. For example, I just took an SGML file with 77 distinct
character entities, mapped these to RTF encodings in an external
declaration set, transformed the SGML to XML, and then used XSL to create
an RTF file. The characters transferred accurately. In a matter of seconds
I had 600 pages of poetry in nicely formatted RTF for a university press,
with two lines of Greek. The file was initially encoded for online
delivery. At any rate, those mnemonic encodings have many advantages.
For readers of the list, you will find XML character encodings for the most
commonly used ISO sets at http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/xml-ISOents.zip
Daniel
At 08:29 AM 10/30/00 +0000, you wrote:
>Stephen Miller
> > From reviewing the XML
> > literature and
> > talking with others it was apparent that Unicode hexadecimal
> > would be the
> > preferred means of entity inclusion for XML in general. It is also
> > specifically recommended within the EAD DTD:
> >
> > <!-- NOTE 1: eadchars.ent should only be invoked for SGML -->
> > <!-- applications. For XML, use Unicode &#xN; where "N" -->
> > <!-- is the Unicode Hexadecimal value assigned by the -->
> > <!-- standard. -->
> >
>I'm really surprised at that.
>
>One of the goals of XML is readability.
>• is one thing
>• is (IMHO) slightly more readable?
>
>Also, with an included entity file, all your mistakes are in one
>place :-) Not that we make any of course!
>
>I'd always favour an external include file, used by all contributors.
>
>Regards DaveP
Daniel V. Pitti Project Director
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
Alderman Library University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Phone: 804 924-6594 Fax: 804 982-2363 Email: [log in to unmask]
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu
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