39 Formal Grammar for the TEI-Interchange-Format Subset of SGML

39.1 Notation

The notation used here is based on notations commonly used in writing context-free grammars. All non-terminals are written as single tokens.

• ‘is defined as’
• instance of a followed by instance of b, possibly separated by white space; white space may be required if a and b cannot otherwise be delimited
• instance of a or instance of b
• instance of a followed immediately by an instance of b, without any intervening white space
• comment; right-hand sides comprising only a comment are used to call attention to productions in which the left-hand sides can reduce to the empty string
• comment; runs to end of line

All non-quoted strings are non-terminals. All terminals are quoted.

39.2 Grammar for SGML Document (Overview)

An SGML document is preceded by an SGML declaration and a prolog comprising one or more document-type declarations. It may be accompanied by one or more subdocument entities, text entities, non-SGML entities, etc., but for simplicity these last are not discussed here.

SGMLdoc ::= SGMLdeclaration prolog docinstance  // cf. 1, 2

The grammars for the SGML declaration, the prolog, and the document instance are provided in the following three sections.

39.3 Grammar for SGML Declaration

This grammar is substantively the same as that in ISO 8879; it does not reflect the restrictions placed on SGML declarations for TEI-conformant documents.

SGMLdeclaration ::= '<!SGML'                // cf. 171
                    'ISO 8879:1986'
                    'CHARSET' charset       // cf. 172
                    'CAPACITY' capacity     // cf. 180
                    'SCOPE' scope           // cf. 181
                    'SYNTAX' syntax
                    'FEATURES'              // cf. 195-198
                        'MINIMIZE'
                                'DATATAG'  yesno
                                'OMITTAG'  yesno
                                'RANK'     yesno
                                'SHORTTAG' yesno
                        'LINK'
                                'SIMPLE' count
                                'IMPLICIT' yesno
                                'EXPLICIT' count
                        'OTHER'
                                'CONCUR' count
                                'SUBDOC' count
                                'FORMAL' yesno
                    'APPINFO' appinfo       // cf. 199
                    '>'
/*
** Strictly speaking, the blank in 'ISO 8879:1986' may be
** replaced by any amount or type of white space.
*/
 
charset     ::= baseset descset             // cf. 173
              | charset baseset descset
baseset     ::= 'BASESET' pubid             // cf. 174
/* For pubid, see Common Constructs below */
descset     ::= 'DESCSET' chardesc          // cf. 175
              |  descset  chardesc
chardesc    ::= NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER        // cf. 176-179
              | NUMBER NUMBER LITERAL
              | NUMBER NUMBER 'UNUSED'
/*
** The first two numbers in chardesc identify starting point
** and a number of characters in the described character set;
** the third number gives the starting position for that run
** in the base set; a literal provides a description of the
** character(s); 'UNUSED' marks the run as unused.
*/
 
capacity    ::= 'PUBLIC' pubid              // cf. 180
              | 'SGMLREF' caplist
caplist     ::= capname NUMBER
              | caplist capname NUMBER
capname     ::= 'TOTALCAP' | 'ENTCAP'   | 'ENTCHCAP'
              | 'ELEMCAP'  | 'GRPCAP'   | 'EXGRPCAP'
              | 'EXNMCAP'  | 'ATTCAP'   | 'ATTCHCAP'
              | 'AVGRPCAP' | 'NOTCAP'   | 'NOTCHCAP'
              | 'IDCAP'    | 'IDREFCAP' | 'MAPCAP'
              | 'LKSETCAP' | 'LKNMCAP'      // cf. Fig. 5
 
scope       ::= 'DOCUMENT' | 'INSTANCE'     // cf. 181
 
syntax      ::= 'PUBLIC' pubid              // cf. 182-183
              | 'PUBLIC' pubid switchlist
              | 'SHUNCHAR' shunchars        // cf. 184
                charset                     // cf. 185
                'FUNCTION'                  // cf. 186
                    'RE' NUMBER 'RS' NUMBER 'SPACE' NUMBER
                    funlist
                'NAMING'                    // cf. 189
                    'LCNMSTRT' LITERAL
                    'UCNMSTRT' LITERAL
                    'LCNMCHAR' LITERAL
                    'UCNMCHAR' LITERAL
                    'NAMECASE' 'GENERAL' yesno 'ENTITY' yesno
                'DELIM'                     // cf. 190-92
                    'GENERAL' 'SGMLREF' gendelim
                    'SHORTREF' srdelim
                'NAMES'    'SGMLREF' nameset // cf. 193
                'QUANTITY' 'SGMLREF' quantityset // cf. 194
/*
** Document WG8 / N1035 suggests allowing multiple literals
** after each keyword in the NAMING section; this may be
** effected by adding the non-terminal literalset after each
** LITERAL.
*/
 
switchlist  ::= 'SWITCHES' NUMBER NUMBER    // cf. 183
              | switchlist NUMBER NUMBER
 
shunchars   ::= 'NONE'                      // cf. 184
              | shunlist
shunlist    ::= 'CONTROLS'
              | NUMBER
              | shunlist NUMBER
 
funlist     ::= NAME funclass NUMBER        // cf. 186-187
              | funlist NAME funclass NUMBER
funclass    ::= 'FUNCHAR' | 'MSICHAR' | 'MSOCHAR' // cf. 188
              | 'MSSCHAR' | 'SEPCHAR'
 
gendelim    ::= /* nil */                   // cf. 191
              | gendelim delimname LITERAL
delimname   ::= 'AND'   | 'COM'  | 'CRO'    // cf. Fig. 3
              | 'DSC'   | 'DSO'  | 'DTGC'   // clause 9.6
              | 'DTGO'  | 'ERO'  | 'ETAGO'
              | 'GRPC'  | 'GRPO' | 'LIT'
              | 'LITA'  | 'MDC'  | 'MDO'
              | 'MINUS' | 'MSC'  | 'NET'
              | 'OPT'   | 'OR'   | 'PERO'
              | 'PIC'   | 'PIO'  | 'PLUS'
              | 'REFC'  | 'REP'  | 'RNI'
              | 'SEQ'   | 'SHORTREF'
              | 'STAGO' | 'TAGC' | 'VI'
 
srdelim     ::= 'SGMLREF' literalset        // cf. 192
              | 'NONE' literalset
literalset  ::= /* nil */
              | literalset LITERAL
nameset     ::= /* nil */
              | nameset sgmlname NAME
/*
** WG8 / N1035 substitutes a LITERAL for the NAME of the
** preceding rule; the value must be a NAME in the declared
** concrete syntax, but it need not be a legal name in the
** reference concrete syntax.
*/
 
sgmlname    ::= 'ANY'      | 'ATTLIST'  | 'CDATA'
              | 'CONREF'   | 'CURRENT'  | 'DEFAULT'
              | 'DOCTYPE'  | 'ELEMENT'  | 'EMPTY'
              | 'ENDTAG'   | 'ENTITIES' | 'ENTITY'
              | 'FIXED'    | 'ID'       | 'IDLINK'
              | 'IDREF'    | 'IDREFS'   | 'IGNORE'
              | 'IMPLIED'  | 'INCLUDE'  | 'INITIAL'
              | 'LINK'     | 'LINKTYPE' | 'MD'
              | 'MS'       | 'NAME'     | 'NAMES'
              | 'NDATA'    | 'NMTOKEN'  | 'NMTOKENS'
              | 'NOTATION' | 'NUMBER'   | 'NUMBERS'
              | 'NUTOKEN'  | 'NUTOKENS' | 'O'
              | 'PCDATA'   | 'PI'       | 'POSTLINK'
              | 'PUBLIC'   | 'RCDATA'   | 'RE'
              | 'REQUIRED' | 'RESTORE'  | 'RS'
              | 'SDATA'    | 'SHORTREF' | 'SIMPLE'
              | 'SPACE'    | 'STARTTAG' | 'SUBDOC'
              | 'SYSTEM'   | 'TEMP'     | 'USELINK'
              | 'USEMAP'
 
quantityset ::= /* nil */
              | quantityset quantity NUMBER
quantity    ::= 'ATTCNT'   | 'ATTSPLEN' | 'BSEQLEN' // Cf.
              | 'DTAGLEN'  | 'DTEMPLEN' | 'ENTLVL'  // Fig. 6
              | 'GRPCNT'   | 'GRPGTCNT' | 'GRPLVL'
              | 'LITLEN'   | 'NAMELEN'  | 'NORMSEP'
              | 'PILEN'    | 'TAGLEN'   | 'TAGLVL'
 
yesno       ::= 'NO' | 'YES'
count       ::= 'NO' | 'YES' NUMBER
 
appinfo     ::= 'NONE' | LITERAL            // cf. 199
/*
** The literal string is restricted to letters, digits,
** whitespace, and 'specials':  viz. any of
** ' ( ) + , - . / : = ?
*/

39.4 Grammar for DTD

An SGML prolog is composed of one or more document type declarations; if multiple DTDs are present, the SGML declaration must include ‘CONCUR YES’ in the FEATURES section. A document type declaration names the root element of the document and declares (in an external file, in a DTD subset, or both) elements, attributes, notations, and entities used in the document instance. Interspersed with these declarations may be comments and processing instructions.

prolog      ::= misc dtdseq                 // cf. 7, 9
 
/* For misc, see Common Constructs below */
 
dtdseq      ::= dtd misc                    // cf. 7
              | dtdseq dtd misc
 
                                            // cf. 110, 111, 30
dtd         ::= '<!DOCTYPE' NAME extid '[' dtdsubset ']' '>'
              | '<!DOCTYPE' NAME       '[' dtdsubset ']' '>'
              | '<!DOCTYPE' NAME extid                   '>'
              | '<!DOCTYPE' NAME                         '>'
 
dtdsubset   ::= /* */                       // cf. 112, 113, 114
              | dtdsubset elementdecl
              | dtdsubset attlistdecl
              | dtdsubset notationdecl
              | dtdsubset entitydecl
              | dtdsubset commdecl
              | dtdsubset procinst
 
/* Element Declarations */                  // cf. 116
elementdecl ::= '<!ELEMENT' elemtype minimiz contentdecl '>'
 
elemtype    ::= NAME                        // cf. 117, 30, 72
              | '(' namegrp ')'
 
namegrp     ::= andnames                    // cf. 69, 131
              | ornames
              | seqnames
seqnames    ::= NAME
              | seqnames ',' NAME
ornames     ::= NAME     '|' NAME
              | ornames  '|' NAME
andnames    ::= NAME     '&' NAME
              | andnames '&' NAME
 
minimiz     ::= min min                     // cf. 122-124
min         ::= 'O' | '-'
 
contentdecl ::= 'CDATA'                     // cf. 125, 126
              | 'RCDATA'
              | 'EMPTY'
              | 'ANY'  exceptions
              | model  exceptions
 
model       ::= '(' tokengrp ')'            // cf. 127
              | '(' tokengrp ')?'
              | '(' tokengrp ')*'
              | '(' tokengrp ')+'
 
tokengrp    ::= seqtokens                   // cf. 127
              | ortokens
              | andtokens
seqtokens   ::= token
              | seqtokens ',' token
ortokens    ::= token     '|' token
              | ortokens  '|' token
andtokens   ::= token     '&' token
              | andtokens '&' token
 
token       ::= '#PCDATA'                   // cf. 128-130
              | NAME & occurrence
              | model
 
occurrence  ::= /* nil */                   // cf. 132
              | '?'
              | '*'
              | '+'
 
exceptions  ::= exclusions inclusions       // cf. 138-140
exclusions  ::= /* nil */
              | '-(' namegrp ')
inclusions  ::= /* nil */
              | '+(' namegrp ')'
 
 
/* Attribute List Declarations */
attlistdecl ::= '<!ATTLIST' associated attdeflist '>' // Cf. 141
 
associated  ::= elemtype
              | assocnotatn
 
assocnotatn ::= '#NOTATION' NAME            // Cf. 149.1
              | '#NOTATION' '(' namegrp ')'
 
attdeflist  ::= attdef                      // Cf. 142
              | attdeflist attdef
 
attdef      ::= NAME valtype default        // Cf. 143-44
 
valtype     ::= 'CDATA'   |                 // Cf. 145
              | 'ENTITY'  | 'ENTITIES'
              | 'ID'      |
              | 'IDREF'   | 'IDREFS'
              | 'NAME'    | 'NAMES'
              | 'NMTOKEN' | 'NMTOKENS'
              | 'NUMBER'  | 'NUMBERS'
              | 'NUTOKEN' | 'NUTOKENS'
              | 'NOTATION' '(' namegrp ')'
              | '(' nmtokgrp ')'
 
nmtokgrp    ::= nmtokcom | nmtokbar | nmtokamp   // Cf. 68, 131
nmtokcom    ::= nametoken
              | nmtokcom  ',' nametoken
nmtokbar    ::= nametoken '|' nametoken
              | nmtokbar  '|' nametoken
nmtokamp    ::= nametoken '&' nametoken
              | nmtokamp  '&' nametoken
nametoken   ::= NAME
              | NUMBER
              | NUMTOKEN
 
default     ::=  value                      // Cf. 147
              | '#FIXED' value
              | '#REQUIRED'
              | '#CURRENT'
              | '#CONREF'
              | '#IMPLIED'
 
/* For value, see Common Constructs below */
 
 
/* Notation Declarations */                 // cf. 148-49, 41
notationdecl ::= '<!NOTATION' NAME extid '>'
 
 
/* Entity Declarations */                   // cf. 101-04
entitydecl  ::= '<!ENTITY' NAME       enttext '>'
              | '<!ENTITY' '#DEFAULT' enttext '>'
              | '<!ENTITY' '% ' NAME  enttext '>'
/*
** Strictly, any white space is acceptable after the %
** in a parameter entity declaration, not just a single
** space.
*/
 
enttext     ::= LITERAL                     // cf. 105-08
              | 'CDATA'    LITERAL
              | 'SDATA'    LITERAL
              | 'PI'       LITERAL
              | 'STARTTAG' LITERAL
              | 'ENDTAG'   LITERAL
              | 'MS'       LITERAL
              | 'MD'       LITERAL
              | extid enttype
 
enttype     ::= /* */                       // cf. 108-109, 149.2
              | 'SUBDOC'
              | 'CDATA' NAME
              | 'CDATA' NAME '[' attspecset ']'
              | 'NDATA' NAME
              | 'NDATA' NAME '[' attspecset ']'
              | 'SDATA' NAME
              | 'SDATA' NAME '[' attspecset ']'
/* For attspecset, see Common Constructs below. */
 
extid       ::= 'SYSTEM'                    // cf. 73
              | 'SYSTEM' sysid
              | 'PUBLIC' pubid
              | 'PUBLIC' pubid sysid
/* For pubid, see Common Constructs below */
 
sysid       ::= LITERAL                     // cf. 75

39.5 Grammar for Document Instance

The SGML document instance is composed of one element (the root element), followed optionally by white space, comments, and processing instructions. The root element, like any other, has a start-tag, content, and an end-tag, or only a start-tag (if it is empty). The specific sort of content recognized within an element depends upon its element declaration.

docinstance ::= element misc                // cf. 10-12
 
element     ::= start-tag content end-tag   // cf. 13
              | start-tag
/*
** N.B. this BNF is for minimal SGML documents; tags may
** not be omitted.
*/
 
start-tag   ::= '<' & NAME attspecset '>'  // cf. 14, 28-30
              | '<(' namegrp ')' & NAME attspecset '>'
/*
** The name group is used only if the SGML declaration
** specifies CONCUR YES.
** For attspecset, see Common Constructs below.
*/
 
content     ::= mixedcontent                // cf. 24
              | elemcontent
              | rcdata
              | cdata
 
mixedcontent ::= /* nil */                  // cf. 25
              | mixedcontent STRING
              | mixedcontent element
              | mixedcontent misccontent
 
elemcontent ::= /* nil */                   // cf. 26
              | elemcontent element
              | elemcontent misccontent
cdata       ::= STRING                      // cf. 47
              | cdata STRING
rcdata      ::= STRING                      // cf. 46
              | rcdata STRING
/*
** White space is ignored between elements in element content,
** but not in mixed content.  In CDATA and RCDATA, start-tag
** delimiters are not recognized.  In CDATA, entity reference
** delimiters are not recognized.  An element's content model
** determines whether it is scanned for mixed content, element
** content, CDATA content, or RCDATA content.
*/
 
misccontent ::= commdecl                    // cf. 27
              | procinst
/*
** For commdecl and procinst, see Common Constructs below.
** Omitted here for simplicity are short-reference and
** link-set use declarations and short references (which are
** not allowed in TEI interchange format), entity references
** (which are assumed to be handled by the lexical scanner),
** and marked-section declarations (also in lexical
** scanner).
*/
 
end-tag     ::= '</' & NAME '>'            // cf. 19, 21
              | '</(' namegrp ')' & NAME '>'
              | '</>'
/*
** The name group is used only if the SGML declaration
** specifies CONCUR YES.
** N.B. The last form (short end-tag) is not allowed in the
** TEI Interchange Format.
*/
 

The document-instance grammar just given contains two sets of formal ambiguities. One set concerns the distinction among mixed content, element content, RCDATA, and CDATA, which depends not on the document content but on the definition of the element within which they appear. These conflicts can be eliminated by eliminating the distinction and assigning the task of distinguishing content type (and alerting the lexical analyzer to modify its behavior) to the semantic rules of the parser, rather than to the syntax.

The second set of ambiguities arises in connection with start-tags: after a start-tag, empty elements are complete, others not, and the ambiguity can be resolved only by consulting the DTD, not by lookahead. Such conflicts can be avoided by defining document content as an unstructured sequence of start-tags, end-tags, and data content; the parser's semantic actions must enforce the pairing and nesting of start- and end-tags and the distinction between empty and non-empty elements. Despite the ambiguities, the grammar given here seems to express the nature of SGML documents more clearly than the unambiguous alternative and so has not been changed; the changes needed to eliminate the parsing conflicts are these:

• delete element, mixedcontent, elemcontent, cdata, and rcdata.
• redefine docinstance and content as follows:

docinstance ::= start-tag content           // cf. 10-12
content     ::= /* nil */                   // cf. 25
              | content STRING
              | content start-tag
              | content end-tag
              | content misccontent

Applications using this simplification must distinguish mixed content, element content, RCDATA, and CDATA using other methods than document syntax. They can check the appropriate matching of start- and end-tags using a simple element stack with provision for empty elements. Some SGML normalizers provide explicit end-tags for empty elements to simplify this task.

39.6 Common Syntactic Constructs

This section defines syntactic constructions used in more than one of the three preceding grammar fragments.

misc        ::= /* nothing */               // cf. 8
              | misc commdecl
              | misc procinst
 
commdecl    ::= '<!--' STRING '--' commseq '>'   // cf. 91, 92
              | '<!>'
commseq     ::= /* nil */
              | commseq '--' STRING '--'
 
procinst    ::= '
<?' STRING '>'             // cf. 44
 
attspecset  ::= /* nil */                   // cf. 31
              | attspecset attspec
 
attspec     ::= NAME '=' value              // cf. 32
              | value
/*
** NAME may be omitted only if the attribute has an
** enumerated range of values and the value is an unquoted
** name token.
*/
 
value       ::= LITERAL                     // Cf. 33
              | NAME
              | NUMBER
              | NUMTOKEN
 
pubid       ::= LITERAL                     // cf. 74, 76
/*
** The literal string is restricted to letters, digits,
** whitespace, and 'specials':  viz. any of
** ' ( ) + , - . / : = ?
*/

39.7 Lexical Scanner

The grammar given above assumes a lexical scanner which

• scans for the terminal strings represented here in quotes
• scans for certain other token types (listed below)
• handles white space and some comments without returning them
• recognizes and expands entity references appropriately without notifying the parser

N.B. the literals given here for delimiters, keywords, and in the definitions of character classes and character types, are those used in the reference concrete syntax of SGML; a full SGML parser must be able to use other concrete syntaxes.

The token types to be returned by the lexical scanner include (in addition to the literals used in the grammars above):

• name
• number
• numtoken
• literal
• string

These are printed in all caps in the grammar and are defined thus:

NAME        ::= letter                      // Cf. 55
        | NAME & letter
        | NAME & digit
        | NAME & othernamech
NUMBER      ::= digit                       // cf. 56
        | NUMBER & digit
NUMTOKEN    ::= digit & letter             // cf. 58
        | digit & othernamech
        | NUMTOKEN & letter
        | NUMTOKEN & digit
        | NUMTOKEN & othernamech
LITERAL     ::= "'" & STRING & "'"        // Cf. 66, 76, 34
        | '"' & STRING & '"'
STRING      ::= /* */
        | STRING & character
/* N.B. The characters legal in a string vary with the string's
location:  in a literal, the string must not contain the closing
quote character; in content or mixed content, the string will
end before a tag or entity reference; in a commdecl or commseq,
the string must not contain the double hyphen that closes the
comment; in a processing instruction, the string may not contain
the '>' which closes the processing instruction, etc. */
character   ::= letter | digit | othercharacter
letter      ::= 'a' | 'b' | 'c' | 'd' ... | 'z'
        | 'A' | 'B' | 'C' | 'D' ... | 'Z'
digit       ::= '0' | '1' | '2' | '3' ... | '9'
othernamech ::= '-' | '.'
whitespace  ::= space | tab | record-end | record-start
space          ::= /* as defined in SGML declaration */
tab            ::= /* as defined in SGML declaration */
record-end     ::= /* as defined in SGML declaration */
record-start   ::= /* as defined in SGML declaration */
othercharacter ::= /* as defined in SGML declaration */

This list of primitive token types differs slightly from that of ISO 8879, which defines names, numbers, name tokens, and number tokens as overlapping sets of tokens distinguished by context. The redefinition provided here assigns each string to a single class and thus allows a simpler lexical analyzer. The terms in ISO 8879 correspond to those here in the following way:

• ISO 8879 name = NAME
• ISO 8879 number = NUMBER
• ISO 8879 name token = NAME | NUMBER | NUMTOKEN
• ISO 8879 number token = NUMBER | NUMTOKEN

The grammar given above assumes that the lexical scanner will recognize and handle entity references and marked sections. Entity references take one of the following forms (parameter entities within the DTD and within marked section declarations, general entities within document content and attribute values):

entityref ::= '&' NAME erc
      | '&' '(' namegrp ')' erc
peref     ::= '%' NAME erc
      | '%' '(' namegrp ')' erc
/*
** The name groups are used only if the SGML declaration
** specifies CONCUR YES.  The TEI Interchange Format
** specifies that entities should never be defined
** differently in different DTDs, so the name group form
** is strictly speaking unnecessary for that format.
*/
erc       ::= ';'
      | '&#RE;'                       // i.e. record-end
      | /* nothing */
/*
** If the entity reference is not ended explicitly by a
** semicolon or end of line, it is ended implicitly by the
** first non-name character.  Unlike the semicolon or
** record-end, this non-name character counts as data and is
** passed to the application as data.
*/

The processing of an entity reference may involve scanning its replacement text for delimiters, passing its content to the parser without scanning for delimiters, opening a new file if the entity is external to the SGML document, and other special processing not described here.

Marked sections take the following forms (n.b. the marked section keywords may be replaced by parameter entity references).

/* Marked Sections */                       // Cf. 97-100
msinclude ::= '<![' includespec '[' scandata  ']]>'
msrcdata  ::= '<![' rcdataspec  '[' rchardata ']]>'
mscdata   ::= '<![' cdataspec   '[' chardata  ']]>'
msignore  ::= '<![' ignorespec  '[' anything  ']]>'
 
/* Marked Section keywords */
kwinclude ::= 'INCLUDE' | 'TEMP'
kwrcdata  ::= kwinclude | 'RCDATA' 
kwcdata   ::= kwrcdata  | 'CDATA' 
kwignore  ::= kwcdata   | 'IGNORE'
 
includespec ::= /* nothing */
            | includespec kwinclude
rcdataspec  ::= includespec 'RCDATA'
            | rcdataspec kwrcdata
cdataspec   ::= rcdataspec 'CDATA' 
            | cdataspec  kwcdata
ignorespec  ::= cdataspec 'IGNORE'
            | ignorespec kwignore

/*
** Multiple keywords may appear; rank order is IGNORE,
** CDATA, RCDATA, INCLUDE.  TEMP is also legal but has
** no effect.
*/
 
chardata  ::= /* characters scanned for ']]>' and
                 returned to parser as character data,
                 regardless of what other delimiters are
                 present */
rchardata ::= /* characters scanned for entity references
                 and ']]>', and then returned to parser
                 as character data, regardless of what other
                 delimiters are present; n.b. the closing
                 ']]>' must occur within the same entity
                 as the opening '<![', not within the expansion
                 of an entity within the marked section */
scandata  ::= /* characters scanned and returned to parser
                 as normal; the marked-section end ']]>'
                 is recognized only within content or
                 between declarations within a DTD */
anything  ::= /* contents of the marked section are 'ignored';
                 i.e., characters are scanned for ']]>'
                 and for nested pairs of '<![' and ']]>',
                 and the lexical scanner does not return the
                 characters to the parser.  */

39.8 Differences from ISO 8879

This grammar assumes the reference concrete syntax; if an alternate concrete syntax is used, some literal strings given in the DTD and document-instance grammars would need to be replaced accordingly.

White space, entity reference, entity end, and comments within markup declarations are assumed to be handled by the lexical scanner and are omitted from this grammar. This shortens and simplifies the grammar somewhat.

The grammar is written as a Backus-Naur-Form (BNF) grammar rather than a regular-right-part grammar; some additional constructs have thus been introduced to deal with repeating and optional items in the original grammar. Non-terminals optional in the original may be required here, and vice versa, depending on how the optionality of a construct has been expressed; in no case does such a change actually affect the set of strings accepted by the grammar.

Some constructs are omitted entirely because they do not occur in the subset of SGML prescribed for use in the TEI Interchange Format:

• link type declaration
• short reference set
• ranked elements and ranked groups
• data tag group
• minimized start-tags
• formal identifiers

Finally, the recognition and expansion of entity references and the handling of marked sections, CDATA and RCDATA elements, and CDATA, SDATA, or NDATA entities have been ignored in the current version. Entity references are assumed to be handled by the lexical scanner, though in a fully conformant SGML parser they are in part dependent on the state of the syntactic parser. CDATA, RCDATA, SDATA, and NDATA elements or entities, like marked sections, are assumed either not to occur or to be handled by the lexical scanner.