W3C | Submissions

Submission request to W3C (W3C Team Comment)


We, W3C member Extensibility, Inc. hereby submit to the Consortium the following specification, comprising the following document(s) attached hereto:
  1. Datatypes for DTDs (DT4DTD)

which collectively are referred to as "the submission". We request the submission be known as the DT4DTD submission.

Abstract

XML 1.0, using DTDs, provides a strong foundation for validating the syntax of a document and ensuring that all the necessary pieces of information are present (i.e. necessary elements are included, inappropriate ones are not, attributes are supplied when required, etc.). DTDs do not, however, offer much help in constraining the value of a particular attribute or element: a.k.a. datatypes to those with programming backgrounds. DT4DTD brings this important capability to XML. Specifically it:

Many legacy systems may presently be unable to convert their DTD markup declarations directly to XML Schema. The specification presented here, coathored with SGML inventor Charles F. Goldfarb, allows those legacy DTD systems to utilize XML Schema conformant datatypes. With it, DTD creators can specify datatypes for attribute values and data content, thereby providing the foundation for a smoother future transition path.

The techniques specified in DT4DTD are already in commercial use in several places, including the Financial Products Markup Language from JPMorgan and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and versions of the Common Business Library from Commerce One, among others. Design-time support for DT4DTD is also available in leading commercial schema design tools such as XML Authority, which is produced by this submitting member organization.

Intellectual property Rights

Extensibility agrees that the submission may be copied, modified, and distributed by W3C staff and W3C members as part of the W3C process. Extensibility has no copyright interests in the submitted document if published as a Note.

Names

The following are registered marks refered to in this request or the submission: XML Authority is a registered trademark of Extensibility, Inc.

Specification

The submission may distributed within the membership of the W3C free of any fee. The submission may be distributed publicly free of any fee under the redistribution terms expressed in the W3C copyright statement.

Implementation

The following points should be noted as regards licensable technology involved in any third party implementations of the technology specified in the submission: an implementation of a DT4DTD runtime component is available from Extensibility, Inc. The implementation is free for both commercial and non-commercial use and redistribution, provided that its license and disclaimer are retained intact.

Suggested action

We suggest that the Consortium make the submitted document available as a Note.

Resources

We do not expect that any additional resources will be required.

Change control

Should any changes be required to the document, we expect to have control over the revision process.

Contact

Inquiries from the public or press about this submission should be directed to: Lee Buck, leebuck@extensibility.com.

Submitted

this 10th day of November, 1999,

Lee Buck, Extensibility, Inc.