Re: A proposal for addition to HTML 3.0: Frames

In message <199509211256.IAA16266@beach.w3.org> 21 Sep 95 08:59:18, connolly@beach.w3.org wrote:

> In message <15514.9509201414@afs.mcc.ac.uk>, lilley writes:
> >
> >I would suggest that it would be much cleaner to declare Frame Documents
> >as a new SGML document type, distinct from HTML.  I suspect there would
> >be no problem in principle with lifting the definition of HEAD from the
> >HTML 2.0 specification.
> 
> [...]
> 
> A distinct MIME type and SGML document type seems like an awfully
> good idea here.
> 
> Dan

I agree completely with Dan and Chris on this.  I think a new document type
is a very interesting idea instead of botching up the HTML DTD with too
many extensions.

Maybe it is one of the inevitable new orientations of the Web.  From
the technical standpoint I have always believed that current browsers
should be ready to support new document types in the form of DTDs.
That is why it is highly recommended for browser vendors to think about
the inclusion of SGML parsers in their products.  They seem to be able
to ensure the layout of documents (which is quite difficult with things
like tables for instance).

Of course there would be problems with all the non-conforming documents
currently on the Web.  For this the current browsers could keep their
current parsers and if they encounter a document type declaration 
(<!DOCTYPE...) in the document they should call the SGML parser.

The presence of an SGML parser would also contribute a lot to the use
of declaration subsets.  It is very much like the Stonehand viewer
mentionned by Glenn Adams.  The SGML parser will take into account
the declaration subset and therefore will use the entity declarations
in there.  The SGML parser I advise for this is YASP.  It is in the
public domain (available as a DLL and a Unix library and highly portable
C source code) and the API is fully documented.

I am sorry I cannot prove what I am saying.  Unfortunately I do not
have time currently to implement this.  I have used YASP to load
a very complex object database and it is extremely pleasant and
powerful.  Do not hesitate to contact me for information.

Anyway we should go for a brand new DTD with the Netscape Frame
proposal.  HTML is already overloaded with extensions.

	Christophe

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Christophe Espert - E-mail: Christophe.Espert@der.edf.fr
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