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From: crowl@cs.rochester.edu (Lawrence Crowl)
Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml
Subject: Is there a DTD standard?
Message-ID: <1990Sep12.020242.2916@cs.rochester.edu>
Date: 12 Sep 90 02:02:42 GMT
References: <141829@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> > <EMV.90Sep6191207@urania.math.lsa.umich.edu> <8027@mcshh.hanse.de> <1990Sep11.163347.7593@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1990Sep11.193327.19935@terminator.cc.umich.edu>
Reply-To: crowl@cs.rochester.edu (Lawrence Crowl)
Organization: University of Rochester Computer Science Dept
Lines: 27

In article <1990Sep11.193327.19935@terminator.cc.umich.edu>
jwh@ifs.umich.edu writes:
>A "DTD" is a Document Type Definition.  It is used to spell out rules which
>govern the markup used in a document.  SGML itself does not specify or define
>any specific markup elements (such as chapter, paragraph, title, etc.)  It 
>really specifies a meta-language for defining markup languages.  A DTD will 
>specify (among other things) what markup "tags" are legal and where tags can
>occur. 

The idea of SGML as a meta-language for defining document syntax is a good
idea.  However, most of the time, I'm just writing text.  Does there exist a
standard for a DTD that says what tags to use in book/articles?  For instance, 
should I use <paragraph> or <par> or what?  How should I describe bulleted
lists?

>The parser would use the DTD to analyze the document for violations of the
>DTD rules and possibly some other work such as translating the document into
>a series of typesetting commands. 

But typesetting the document requires that one know what <chapter> and
<paragraph> mean.  The SGML standard doesn't say what they mean.  Does anyone
know of work in this area?  Surely the book and journal publishers have an
opinion on what should be done.
-- 
  Lawrence Crowl		716-275-9499	University of Rochester
		      crowl@cs.rochester.edu	Computer Science Department
	  ...!{ames,rutgers}!rochester!crowl	Rochester, New York,  14627