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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T18:07:20+00:00

Can someone please explain why both quoted lines are necessary in <!DOCTYPE grammar PUBLIC

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Can someone please explain why both quoted lines are necessary in
<!DOCTYPE grammar PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD GRAMMAR 1.0//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/grammar.dtd">? This is from the official SRGS (http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/) document, Section 2.7. One would think just the latter quoted line which notes the location of the dtd be enough. I suspect it has something to do with specifying the language in English but the document does not explain this. Thanks.

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  1. Editorial Team

    Only the latter string (the system identifier) must be present if an XML document is supposed to be valid against a DTD.

    The first quoted string is the public identifier, and it is optional. It is used to uniquely identify a DTD (or other external identifier) by name instead of by physical address. A public identifier can often be assumed to be more stable than a http: or file: URL. It makes it possible to locate a DTD even if the system identifier is wrong, or if internet access is down (for example).

    It would be OK to use only 

    <!DOCTYPE grammar SYSTEM "http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/grammar.dtd">

    Note the use of the SYSTEM keyword in this case.

    See also http://www.xml.com/axml/target.html#sec-external-ent.

    Regarding usage of DTDs hosted by W3C, you might be interested in http://www.w3.org/blog/systeam/2008/02/08/w3c_s_excessive_dtd_traffic/.

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