Whitespace outside the document element

I would like a clarification on the status of whitespace outside the
document element in the XPath data model.  Clause 5.1 speaks of
the children of the root node being an element node and possible
comment nodes and processing instruction nodes; there is no mention
of text nodes.

DOM definitely forbids such nodes at both Level 1 and Level 2.
SAX does not signal an event for such whitespace.  That means that
if such whitespace is in the model, XPath processors cannot be
layered directly over either DOM or SAX.

I'm not asking out of randomness: the answer definitely will affect
the Canonical XML WD.

-- 

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)

Received on Friday, 2 June 2000 17:18:39 UTC