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Re: XML Schema vs. DTD

Subject: Re: XML Schema vs. DTD
From: Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 17:09:11 +0100

I've read a lot about the similarities and differences
of XML Schemas and DTDs, and it appears the advantages
offered by Schemas are related to describing,
validating, and working with data. Since we tech
writers generally aren't manipulating data, I'm not
sure that a Schema is necessarily better than a DTD
for simply defining document structure.

Scriptorium Publishing has just released a good whitepaper on structured documentation (30 pages, 600 KB, available at www.scriptorium.com/structure.pdf) that touches on this question. Same as you, the authors think that schemas do not offer significant advantages over DTDs for technical writing. They see their value more in data exchange applications.

Am I on track here? Would any of you XML experts
recommend a Schema nonetheless, in anticipation of
future enhancments?

I'm no XML expert, but it seems better to stick to DTDs, at least for now. There are two potentially serious disadvantages to using schemas today:

- They are not yet standardized, so you may need to go back and change what you have done.

- Fewer tools are available than for DTDs.

Regards
Jan Henning

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References:
XML Schema vs. DTD: From: Steven Brown

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