Re: XML and HTML Intermixed

Neil Bradley (n.bradley@pindar.co.uk)
Fri, 27 Jun 1997 09:43:50 +0000

>[Bob Seibel:]
>
>| Let's say I used a style sheet to display the contents. It seems to me
>| that using HTML tags intermixed with XML tags is a good thing. I don't
>| have to reinvent my own tags when HTML already defines them.
>
>You can mix tags all you want; with the exception of a handful of
>reserved names, the XML name space belongs to you. But this means
>that "UL" has no more meaning to an XML processor than "SOLUTION"
>does; in both cases, you must use some other mechanism to specify the
>semantics. The most common mechanisms are going to be Java classes or
>stylesheets.

Is there a general assumption that the browser vendors will support XML in
the near future? If this is so, I would think that HTML tags can be
avoided. Just use cascading style sheets on XML tags instead.

The one big exception to this would be tables, which are not covered by CSS
(yet?). I know I have mentioned this before, but if browser vendors are
going to lead the XML revolution, and I think (or at least hope) they are,
then we should expect that they would want to retain their investment in
HTML tables, rather than adopt some new standard. Could we not therefore
accept this reality, but to maintain flexibility state that the Table
element definition must include a fixed attribute, say -XML-TABLE, when
this assumption should be made.

_________________________________________________________
Neil Bradley, SGML Consultant, Pindar plc

Author of
"The Concise SGML Companion"
Addison-Wesley Longman (ISBN: 0-201-41999-8)

The third-rate mind thinks with the majority;
the second-rate mind thinks with the minority;
the first-rate mind is only happy thinking (A. A. Milne)

Tel: +44 (0)1904 330162
EMail: neil@bradley.co.uk
URL: http://www.bradley.co.uk
_________________________________________________________