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RFC 2629 - Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML

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RFC 2629 - Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML

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Network Working Group                                            M. Rose
Request for Comments: 2629                        Invisible Worlds, Inc.
Category: Informational                                        June 1999

                    Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo presents a technique for using XML (Extensible Markup
   Language) as a source format for documents in the Internet-Drafts
   (I-Ds) and Request for Comments (RFC) series.

Table of Contents

   1.      Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.      Using the DTD to Write I-Ds and RFCs . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.1     XML basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.2     Front matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   2.2.1   The title Element  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   2.2.2   The author Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   2.2.3   The date Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   2.2.4   Meta Data Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   2.2.5   The abstract Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   2.2.6   The note Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   2.2.7   Status, Copyright Notice, Table of Contents  . . . . . . .  9
   2.2.7.1 Conformance with [20]RFC 2026  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   2.2.8   Everything in the Front  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   2.3     The Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   2.3.1   The section Element  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   2.3.1.1 The t Element  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   2.3.1.2 The list Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   2.3.1.3 The figure Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   2.3.1.4 The xref Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   2.3.1.5 The eref Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   2.3.1.6 The iref Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   2.3.1.7 The vspace Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   2.4     Back matter  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   2.4.1   The references Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   2.4.2   Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   2.4.3   Copyright Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   3.      Processing the XML Source File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   3.1     Editing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   3.1.1   Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   3.2     Converting to Text Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   3.3     Converting to HTML Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   3.4     Viewing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   3.5     Searching  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   4.      Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
           References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
           Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   A.      The rfc Element  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   B.      The RFC DTD  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
   C.      Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   Index  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

1. Introduction

   This memo describes how to write a document for the I-D and RFC
   series using the Extensible Markup Language [1] (XML). This memo has
   three goals:

   1.  To describe a simple XML Document Type Definition (DTD) that is
       powerful enough to handle the simple formatting requirements of
       RFC-like documents whilst allowing for meaningful markup of
       descriptive qualities.

   2.  To describe software that processes XML source files, including a
       tool that produces documents conforming to [21]RFC 2223 [2], HTML
       format, and so on.

   3.  To provide the proof-of-concept for the first two goals (this
       memo was written using this DTD and produced using that
       software).

   It is beyond the scope of this memo to discuss the political
   ramifications of using XML as a source format for RFC-like documents.
   Rather, it is simply noted that adding minimal markup to plain text:

   o  allows the traditional production of textual RFC-like documents
      using familiar editors;

   o  requires some, albeit minimal, additions to existing software
      environments; and,

   o  permits information to be organized, searched, and retrieved using
      both unstructured and structured mechanisms.

2. Using the DTD to Write I-Ds and RFCs

   We do not provide a formal or comprehensive description of XML.
   Rather, this section discusses just enough XML to use a Document Type
   Declaration (DTD) to write RFC-like documents.

   If you're already familiar with XML, skip to Appendix B to look at
   the DTD.

2.1 XML basics

   There are very few rules when writing in XML, as the syntax is
   simple. There are five terms you'll need to know:

   1.  An "element" usually refers to a start tag, an end tag, and all
       the characters in between, e.g., "text and/or nested
       elements"

   2.  An "empty element" combines the start tag and the end tag, e.g.,
       "". You don't find these in HTML.

   3.  An "attribute" is part of an element. If present, they occur in
       the start tag, e.g., "". Of course, they
       can also appear in empty elements, e.g., "".

   4.  An "entity" is a textual macro that starts with "&". Don't worry
       about these, you'll only use them whenever you want to put a "&"
       or a "