Re: Sudden death: request for missing input

Dave Hollander <dmh@hpsgml.fc.hp.com> wrote:
>
> Q2a: Is it important to have interoperability defined for documents
> 	that have errors?


Absolutely not!

If the XML spec mandates any kind of error recovery policy,
then illegal documents containing errors detectable by that
policy will in effect become legal XML.  If a document is
illegal according to the letter of the law, but all applications
are required to interpret it in the same way, then it is for
all practical purposes "legal" after all.

A principal goal of XML is that it be easy to parse.  Any
mandated error recovery policy will make it harder to parse,
with no real benefit to authors or users.

Tim's proposal (paraphrased) that "an application _must_ barf if
it sees an error" is perhaps too strict;  I would argue that
anything other than "an application _may_ barf if it sees an
error" is also too strict.



--Joe English

  jenglish@crl.com

Received on Wednesday, 30 April 1997 14:09:18 UTC