>> The point is, any XML document that contains text may potentially need
>> non-ASCII characters. But only XML documents which are also XHTML can
>> contain non-ASCII characters. How is that sensible?
>
> No. Only XML documents which are also XHTML documents can use the XHTML
> standard for specifying ASCII-only names for non-ASCII characters.

Why would you want three different standard names for the same character?

> So type the characters directly. Nothing stops you from embedding a
> thron or an omega in your document except that you don't want to learn
> how to type one on the keyboard you have.

Well, for that matter, you can just type the Unicode code number 
directly. (This at least works with all operating systems and text 
editors, doesn't break every five minutes, etc.) It's just that 
memorising large quantities of code numbers isn't exactly trivial.

>> OK. But it could make sense for different DTDs to apply to different
>> subtrees, surely?
>
> You still have to have one DTD that says where the trees are allowed to
> join up. There's nothing that says that DTD isn't trivial to construct
> from two other DTDs.

Well, if it were possible for one DTD to import several others, then it 
could be pretty easy... As it is, constructing even one DTD is so 
insanely hard that only the professionals can do it.

>> In summary, XML doesn't provide the necessary tools to solve common
>> problems
>> such as mixing more than one markup together.
>
> It does. You just don't like the solution.

What, a combinatorial explosion of DTDs for every possible combination 
of XML applications that you might ever want to combine? No, that's just 
silly.

> It's like you're saying
> "Haskell doesn't provide the necessary tools to incorporate C syntax
> into its type declarations." No, they're completely different type systems.

Not relevant, but: Actually Haskell does let you do this. There's a 
standard preprocessor for exactly this task. People use it when binding 
to external C or C++ libraries.

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