A Conceptual Model for XML

摘要

We claim that document engineering (the systematic development of document presentations, representations and document tools) should be firmly based on explicit, formal and abstract document models. This precept is well accepted and practiced in, for example, the database community but it is, apparently, less accepted in the XML community. We want to change this position. As a first step in the demonstration of the value of explicit, formal document models we present and discuss a conceptual model for XML DTDs and their (DTD-conforming) documents that is, indeed, abstract, formal and explicit. This new model captures what can be considered to be the essence of an XML DTD and its documents.