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Re: Stylesheets vs. DTDs or XML Schemas

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg61430] Re: Stylesheets vs. DTDs or XML Schemas
• From: "Steven T. Hatton" <hattons at globalsymmetry.com>
• Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 02:16:08 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <200510170629.CAA16347@smc.vnet.net> <dj26iu$bbg$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Chris Chiasson wrote:

> Look up NotebookML, ExpressionML, etc

I am aware of these, and I believe they are worth learning.  They may even
provide some of what I'm describing.  Nonetheless, I don't believe I can
create my own DTD or XML syntax definition and feed it to Mathematica as a
means of defining document structure.
 
> So, what do you intend to do with these theorems and proofs, etc? If
> you only want to store information without worrying about style, you
> could just assign it to a symbol (or even use the object oriented
> extensions to Mathematica that I have seen floating around on one of
> the WRI RSS feeds to which I subscribed).

Basically, my objective is the original objective of SGML.  I would like to
have the kind of support I get with PSGML and (X)Emacs.  That could get
rather challenging when it comes to dealing with Mathematica InputForm.

> One problem you may run into is that Mathematica's integrated style
> and layout capabilities are not as good as CSS + XHTML. Heh, Publicon
> can't even do a two column layout.

One problem I have with the way stylesheets are used in Mathematica is that
they mix structure with layout.  Currently what I most want is the ability
to work with the textual parts of documents in a more structured way.  It
would be nice to be able to feed Mathematica an expression in internal
form, and have it automagically transformed into the style I specify for
such things as differentiation operators and matrices.  That may be far too
difficult to accomplish, especially if I also want to provide input in the
transformed form.
-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: Stylesheets vs. DTDs or XML Schemas
    • From: Chris Chiasson <chris.chiasson@gmail.com>

• References:
  • Stylesheets vs. DTDs or XML Schemas
    • From: "Steven T. Hatton" <hattons@globalsymmetry.com>