Fwd: Errata: Entities cannnot begin with a BOM - can only be preceded by a BOM

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject:  Errata: Entities cannnot begin with a BOM - can only be 
preceded by a BOM
Resent-Date:  Thu, 19 Dec 2013 02:21:33 +0000
Resent-From:  xml-editor@w3.org
Date:  Thu, 19 Dec 2013 03:21:03 +0100
From:  Leif Halvard Silli <xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no>
Organization:  Målform.no
To:  xml-editor@w3.org



Section 4.3.3. of XML 1.0 fifth edition contains the following phrase,
which sounds as though an entity (for example an external entity) may
begin with a Byte Order Mark:

    “an entity which begins with neither a Byte Order Mark
     nor an encoding declaration”

While it is not 100% clear what kind of ”entity” it is meant, the
phrase is misleading because, as pointed out in the same section, and
in  the document production in section 2[2][3], and as re-emphasized by
3023bis (XML media types)[4], the BOM (unlike an encoding declaration)
is not part of the external entity.

So an entity cannot “begin” with a BOM, it can only be preceded by a
BOM. (By analogy, when there is a transport protocol, such as HTTP, we
do not say the entity “begins”
with a Content-Type declaration.)

Hence, please update the above phrase to reflect this point, for
instance by adjusting it roughly like this:

“an entity which is neither preceded by a Byte Order Mark nor begins
with an encoding declaration”

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#charencoding
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#dt-xml-doc
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#NT-document
[4]
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-appsawg-xml-mediatypes-06#section-3.3
-- 
leif halvard silli