[DOC-SIG] Comparing SGML DTDs

[Edward Welbourne]

> All this discussion of SGML/XML is moot if we can't fix the basic
> problem of SGML's special characters conflicting with Python's.

In the main pages of documentation, the manuals &c., we don't have to
worry about all this because we can use fancy tools to do our document
generation for us, so the fact that some folk find typing raw SGML
tedious doesn't raise itself as an objection.  Use of Frame+SGML,
(modern) emacs SGML mode or one of the better WYSI-more-or-less-WYG SGML
editors will suffice.  The only place where there's a problem with SGML
is in the labour of writing and the ugliness of reading doc strings.

In a doc string, the only special characters are \, % and the quote
character used to delimit the string (right ?).  Furthermore,
doc-strings are triple-quoted, so quote characters only matter if they
happen in triplicate: which doesn't happen in HTML.  I don't see HTML
using \.  And % only presents a problem if we want to use doc-strings as
format strings: I don't.

The fact that <EM>outside strings</EM> python has special readings of <,
>, &, / and ; is not an issue: we only intend to write our
XML/TIM/... inside doc strings or in files which aren't python code.

I see no conflict in need of a fix here.
Enlighten me if I've missed the point.

	Eddy.

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