
• Perform syntactic transformation of the source
DTD such as eliminating the unnecessary paren-
theses in the declaration in the DTD.
• Rewrite the source DTD into an XML docu-
ment or an intermediate model while retaining
the DTD declarations. Then each DTD transfor-
mation can be expressed by an XSLT stylesheet
applicable to the intermediate model.
Our approach differs from existing approaches in that
it provides a formal framework for analyzing DTDs
based on compilation techniques. We define a con-
text free grammar that recognizes the language of the
DTD. Then any DTD conversion can be realized by
enriching this grammar with an attributed system.
Our contribution is that in the case of multiple trans-
formations, we can convert the DTD to another inter-
mediate model such as XML and apply a stylesheet to
the intermediate model for each transformation with-
out having to analyze the source DTD.
In the future, the entire framework, grammar with at-
tributes, can be used to split the model conversion
into two steps: The first step is to convert the DTD
into an intermediate model in terms of XML syntax,
while the second step of effective conversion can be
expressed by an XSLT stylesheet. We will also ex-
plore a way to map DTDs to relational schemas and
use traditional relational database engines to process
XML documents, since XML is emerging as the data
format of the Internet and there is a need for storing
and querying XML documents.
Acknowledgment:
Special thanks to Miss Ferial Srour Nemr for her
excellent proofreading.
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WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on INFORMATION SCIENCE and APPLICATIONS
DOI: 10.37394/23209.2024.21.51
Souheil Tawk, Maroun Abi Assaf,
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