Julia Flanders wrote:

>...and also, if I'm not mistaken, because changes are still being
>made, so the tagset itself is something of a moving target.
>
_sensu strictu_, I suggest that the tagset is unlikely to change
much more except in limited areas (eg bibliographies). There
will
be new elements, of course, over time, and some may die, but
I think
the chance of <div> being renamed <sect> is small :-}

the two big changes waiting in the wings are:

a) those which affect the attributes which used to contain
human-parseable text,
     some of which will have to transform into new elements
b) the class system, where names and membership are likely
to change

and of course there is

  c) much work on the text of the Guidelines

but so far as instance documents go, then the only killer is
a). If you
are unlucky enough to use attributes heavily which are for
the chop,
you're going to have a translation problem (though likely a
relatively
simple one to solve).

If you've got a heavily customized P4 DTD, you've got real
work to do
to turn it into a P5 ODD specification. But the good news
there is that
a) the results will be well worth it, and b) the ODD
language should
now be stable.

> Sort of like living in an unfinished
>house--it's fine to walk through the walls for now, but don't be
>surprised and hit your head when the sheetrock goes up...
>
>
I am not sure what sheetrock is (folks outside my door here
seem to use bamboo and palm leaves), but I'd say you're being
a little pessimistic in that analogy. The roof is on,
the walls are in place, the windows are glazed,
the wiring and plumbing are mostly done. The power
is connected. However, there are no carpets or curtains,
the walls are unpainted, and some of the electric sockets
may move.


--

Sebastian Rahtz
Information Manager, Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone +44 1865 283431

OSS Watch: JISC Open Source Advisory Service
http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk