Re: 4. ID assignment and the empty string

/ Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> was heard to say:
| On Wed, 5 Jan 2005, Norman Walsh wrote:
|> | |
|> | |    2. If this normalised value is not the empty string, ID assignment
|> | |       is performed using the normalised attribute as the ID.
|> 
|> The Core WG discussed this issue and concluded that the empty string is
|> no different than any other invalid value. Please let us know if you find
|> this answer satisfactory.
|
| The problem is that invalid values do not stop the value from becoming an 
| ID according to the current wording as I understand it. However, while it 
| is not a big problem if "!(&" becomes an ID value that can be looked up 
| using the DOM getElementById() method or accessed in CSS via the #\!\(\& 
| selector, it is a more serious problem if the empty string is used as an 
| element's identifier.

This problem already exists:

<!DOCTYPE doc [
<!ATTLIST p id ID #IMPLIED>
]>
<doc>
<p id=""/>
</doc>

| Also, without the proposed modification quoted above, it is unclear that 
| ID assignment is performed using the normalised attribute value, as 
| opposed to any other value. (While only one processing makes common sense, 
| other processings would not be non-conformant without the explicit 
| statement above).

That is now clearly specified:

   1. The attribute's value is normalized according to the rules for
      attribute-value normalization on attributes of type ID. For more
      details, see E Attribute Value Normalization on IDs.

      The infoset [normalized value] property is updated with the
      normalized value.

   2. ID assignment is performed with the normalized value.

| Thus I disagree with this resolution.

Does the observation that the problem already exists persuade you
to withdraw your objection?

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman.Walsh@Sun.COM / XML Standards Architect / Sun Microsystems, Inc.
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended
recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited.
If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by
reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.