Re: SGML-formatting with WML

[nospam@thanx ("Dirk Frömbgen")]

>>>>> "Stephane" == Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr> writes:

    >> Has anyone ever thought of using WML as a batch formatter
    >> for SGML input?

    > I tried wml --includefile=foobar.wml over my SGML sources
    > (actually XML) and, yes, it works fine. So does M4 if you
    > need a processing not available in your SGML environment :-)

I see, but what I have in mind is POSTprocessing pure SGML,
not PREprocessing a mixture of SGML and WML, which is actually
neither of both.  In SGML lingo, I want to process an SGML
application with WML, thus avoiding tree transformations à
la DSSSL and all the overhead involved.  This application is
a Web site formatter.  Come to think of it, LaTeX doesn't do
tree transformations, either, and has nevertheless worked out
quite well.  I like M4 and considered it for this job first,
but there seems to be only one M4 macro package for generating
HTML, stdlib.m4 by Jones, if I recall correctly, but it's not
free and only for HTML3.2, which is not enough for my purposes.

    > The symbols used by WML could lead to problems. What if you
    > have a line beginning with '#' in your SGML source?

No big deal, because WML will never get to see any of my SGML
source.  As I said, it would be just one more language on top
of WML.  I would have to make WML more usable for nontechnical
people this way.  Theoretically speaking, I'm considering adding
a formal document grammar to WML; so far, it has none.

    >> This would allow WML to be used with structured editors.

    > Well, if they refuse elements which do not belong to the
    > DTD, what will be left to WML?

I'm considering converting the ESIS for a private DTD to WML.
As this is an obvious idea and a straightforward procedure, I
wonder if anybody has done it or is planning on doing it shortly.

Bye,
	Dirk
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