Re: [xml-dev] Unclear point in XML Base

Elliotte Rusty Harold scripsit:

> 2. the base URI of the element's parent element within the document 
> or external entity, if one exists, otherwise

[snip]

> Clearly, point 2 applies. Unfortunately the English is unclear. Does it mean:
> 
> A. the base URI of the element's parent element within the *same* 
> entity, whether that entity is a document entity or external entity
> 
> B. the base URI of the element's parent element whether the element 
> comes from the document entity or an external entity

I think clearly A is meant, otherwise there would be no point in mentioning
entities at all in point 2.  A clearer wording would be "document entity or
external entity" rather than "document or external entity".

See .sig below for a terse explication of this kind of reasoning.

-- 
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
"The exception proves the rule."  Dimbulbs think: "Your counterexample proves
my theory."  Latin students think "'Probat' means 'tests': the exception puts
the rule to the proof."  But legal historians know it means "Evidence for an
exception is evidence of the existence of a rule in cases not excepted from."