Root Element Attributes...

Tyler Baker (tyler@infinet.com)
Thu, 09 Apr 1998 23:20:46 -0400

"There is exactly one element, called the root, or document element, no
part of which appears in the content of any other element. For all other
elements, if the start-tag is in the content of another element, the
end-tag is in the content of the same element. More simply stated, the
elements, delimited by start- and end-tags, nest properly within each
other.

As a consequence of this, for each non-root element C in the document,
there is one other element P in the document such that C is in the
content of P, but is not in the content of any other element that is in
the content of P. P is referred to as the parent of C, and C as a child
of P."

I am a little confused by whether attributes are allowed in the root
element of a document. To date I have never seen a DTD in which the
root element had any attributes whatsoever, but from the specification
it appears that there is no restriction on making one root element with
about 500 or so attributes (I am not saying I would ever do this).

Can anyone please clarify this who is maybe an SGML literate as well?

Thanx in advance,

Tyler