- From: <lee@sq.com>
- Date: Fri, 23 May 97 22:09:46 EDT
- To: w3c-sgml-wg@w3.org
Andrew Layman <andrewl@microsoft.com> wrote: [...] > [Andrew Layman] This is the key question here. It is not the XML > parser's job to detect namespaces. Applications that care will break out > the namespace part of the name, and look for a matching namespace > element. This could be a standard support routine shipped with parsers, > but is not--strictly speaking--a parser's job. Similarly, I do not see > validation as part of a parser's job, but as something that is (at least > logically) layered on. In the SGML world, the word "parser" does not mean "parser" as used elsewhere in the field of computing. It has a special, SGML meaning. An SGML parser does indeed do validation. Whether an XML parser (in the usual sense of the word parser) should do validation is another matter entirely. I agree with you that namespace checking doesn't belong in a (CS) parser. It's part of the semantics layer, if you will. But I wouldn't expect a CS parser to check that an element had been declared either -- that would be done in a separate module/class/layer. In this mailing list at least, the word "parser" is generally taken in the SGML sense, although I would agree that it isn't clear. Would it help if the XML spec used different terminology? E.g. the XML Input Reader and the XML Input Checker, or something?? (an SGML/XML parser contains both of these) Lee
Received on Friday, 23 May 1997 22:09:54 UTC