Re: [docbook] character entities with Docbook Schemas..

[Michael Smith <smith@xml-doc.org>]

Rajal,

I'm not sure whether the W3C XML Schema spec and processing apps even
support having an internal DTD subset in a doc instance; but anyway, if
you're doing validation against a W3C XML schema and don't want to use
an internal DTD subset in your doc instances, there's no way you can use
named character entities.

The real solution is just to not use named character entities. Instead,
if you're using an editing environment that supports input and display
of Unicode characters, you can just type in the copyright symbol, u
umlaut, etc.  characters directly. Or, you can type in the numeric
character entities and use an editing app that does something "smart"
with those.  I'm not sure if there are any W3C XML Schema editing apps
like that, but there is one for working with RELAX NG -- Emacs/nXML mode
-- that, in the editing buffer, shows glyphs for all numeric character
entities (along with giving you an easy way to insert the entities that
doesn't require to you memorize anything).

  --Mike

Rajal Shah <rajal@meshsoftware.com> writes:

> Would I be able to use character entities (e.g.: &copy;, &uuml; etc) in my
> DocBook instance were I to use the DocBook XML Schemas instead of DTDs?
> 
> If yes, can someone give me a brief intro or point me to a location where I
> can read up on how DocBook handles these character entities? Considering
> that XML Schemas don't allow you to define character entities like in DTDs..
> I'm uncertain if I lose the ability to specify char entities when going to
> Schemas? (I do not want to use an internal DTD in the instance doc to
> specify the entities)..
> 
> Regards.

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