Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Suppressing <?xml version="1.0"> added by XMetaL

[Bob Stayton <bobs at caldera dot com>]

On Mon, Jun 17, 2002 at 06:17:07PM +0400, Zhuravleva, Tatyana wrote:
> I'm a newbie, thinking of using XMetaL for DocBook.
> 
> One of the things I got stuck with right in the beginning is that XMetaL
> adds <?xml version="1.0">  to my chapter files (external entities), even
> when opening in "Edit as a partial document" mode. 
> And saxon doesn't like it. Can anybody tell, am I doing anything wrong?
> I'm going to have lots of files, so removing the line manually is not an
> option for me. Sorry if it's offtopic.

The XML standard says that external entities can and should
have <?xml version="1.0">, but they should not have a
<!DOCTYPE> declaration.  I suspect your chapter files have
a <!DOCTYPE> declaration, and that is what Saxon and other
XML processors object to.

XMetal will automatically add the <?xml> line since that is
required of all XML files.  It won't add a <!DOCTYPE>
declaration.  If you don't have DOCTYPE in your chapter files,
then XMetal will ask for one each time you open the file.
XMetal doesn't have that nice ArborText feature of storing
a special comment to indicate the intended DOCTYPE for when
it is being edited as a document.

Starting in version 3.0, XMetal will infer the DOCTYPE for
the external entity if you open it by double clicking on
the system entity icon from within the master book
document.  That gets around having to designate the DTD
each time you want to edit a chapter.  So when I'm working
on such a book, I first open the master book document, and
then open each chapter file from there.

-- 

Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
Publications Architect                      Santa Cruz, CA  95060
Technical Publications                      voice: (831) 427-7796
Caldera International, Inc.                 fax:   (831) 429-1887
                                            email: bobs@caldera.com