| TITLE: | Instructions to the editors of ISO/IEC 15445 ISO-HTML |
| SOURCE: | WG4 |
| PROJECT: | JTC1.18.43 ISO-HTML |
| STATUS: | Approved by JTC1/WG4 at the Alexandria VA meeting. |
| ACTION: | By ISO-HTML editors. |
| DATE: | December 2nd, 1997 |
| REFERENCE: | |
| DISTRIBUTION: | WG4 and Liaisons |
The meeting reviewed the draft of the Final CD 15445 ISO-HTML and gave the following instructions to the editors.
The instruction given to editors not to include in ISO-HTML any facility not included in HTML 4.0 is clarified to apply at two levels:
The set of documents which conform to ISO-HTML shall be a subset of the set of documents which conform to W3C HTML 4.0.
The set of documents which conform to the ISO-HTML DTD shall be a subset of the set of documents which conform to the W3C HTML 4.0 DTD. This is a new requirement.
This new requirement is introduced to overcome a problem that arises
with the use of general purpose SGML tools which parse a document
instance and recreate a `normalised' fully marked-up document with all
start tags and end tags present. Such a normalised document is
considered to be a conforming instance of the same DTD as the
original. This process would not be possible for ISO-HTML since the
normalised document would include <DIV1>
... <DIV6> elements.
Note that as a result of this instruction, the DTD will no longer contain any mechanism to allow parser verification of correct section nesting.
The <STYLE> element shall be moved from an appendix to the body of the standard and be available in all ISO-HTML document instances. The STYLE attribute shall be removed from the specification, and is not to be offered by ISO-HTML.
In view of the decision by the W3C HTML 4.0 editors to split HTML 4.0 into a Strict DTD, a Loose DTD and a Frameset DTD, it is no longer necessary for the JTC1 specification to offer the NoStructure option. The rôle of the unstructured DTD is now offered by the W3C Strict DTD.
ISO/IEC 15445 shall not offer its users any means of extending the standard. The editors are to remove from the specification all material concerning the "addon" techniques.
Since the Structure and InLineStyle options no longer exist, the formal public identifiers which define them shall be removed from the specification, as shall the SGML option. There will thus be only one formal public identifier.
The acronym ISO-HTML shall not be used in the normative specification. The document shall refer to itself by its full title or as "this specification".
In order to facilitate the wide publication of ISO-HTML, the current specification shall be split into two documents as follows.
A short document containing the normative specification. This document shall be centered around the DTD and shall be written for SGML experts. The DTD shall be thoroughly commented with all the normative requirements not enforceable by the DTD.
An ISO-HTML User's Guide (UG) which is written for a reader familiar with W3C HTML 4.0, but not an expert in SGML. This document may take the form of an article written by the editors and intended for wide publication. The UG is not an ISO/IEC document.
WG4 recommends that the User's Guide explain the DIV1
... DIV6 technique for marking up ISO-HTML-like documents
so that correct structuring may be verified by an SGML parser.
The editors shall migrate the specification from the DTD used by the ISO Central Secretariat to the ISO-HTML DTD.