Re: RS/RE: basic questions

Paul Prescod <papresco@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

> Joe English wrote:
> >There's one more rule (which is the important one):
> >
> >  * disallow separator characters in element content
>
> I don't see how that is required. As far as I know, the SGML separator
> character rules are not complicated in element content and would not have to
> be changed.

The problem is that the parser has to examine (at least part of)
the DTD in order to determine which elements have mixed content
and which have element content.  If the goal is to enable DTD-less
parsers to construct the same grove as DTD-aware ones, then
SEPCHARs in element content have to be distinguished from those in
mixed content through some other mechanism.  One way is to explicitly
delimit the latter; another is to disallow the former.

This is independant of dealing with the RS/RE rules.  For that
problem, David Durand's suggestion that XML entity managers
treat documents as a single record sounds like a good one
since it places the fewest restrictions on DTDs and instances
of all the proposals so far.

> As long as all of our restrictions are on mixed content, which is where the
> problem is, then I don't wee why we would need any restrictions on element
> content. If I'm wrong on that, then this proposal is completely unworkable.
> People need to be able to organize their element content with whitespace.

You're probably right...


--Joe English

  jenglish@crl.com

Received on Monday, 23 September 1996 19:10:36 UTC