Re: Character references in XML

Peter Murray-Rust wrote:
> I don't think we have any option but to follow SGML, and for the sake of
> Norbert, other xml-dev'ers and myself we really need this clearing up soon.
> (I am still struggling to get a valid parser that can be bolted into my system
> :-).

I wasn't saying that we shouldn't follow SGML. The point I was trying to
make
was that there are certain issues, char refs is just one of them, that
are potentially ambigous.

Util we go public at WWW6 we can resolve these problems quietely and
quickly.
After WWW6 we will spend the rest of our lifes answering
e-mails with requests for clarifications ;-)

IMHO the problem is that most of us, when they read the XML standard,
automatically (subconsciously) fill in the gaps by what is known from 
previous SGML experience. (And I bet many of these things have been
learned
with blood and tears....) Discussions about certain issues have shown me
that, even after "A decade of SGML" people disagree on many things.
(If you want to see what a real fight is then just to talk about RE/RS 
when having lunch with a few experts in the community ;-) )

If we want XML to be selfcontained and not an appendix to ISO 8879
we need to address these items in a concise but *explicit* way. 

I see my role in the XML-WG as somebody that is supposed to point out
these
points of potential misunderstanding. Since I have implemented an XML
parser
that tries to follow the spec. by the word I know where the gaps are and
I 
have always tried to point them out to the XML-WG and the ERB.

-- 
Best regards,
Norbert H. Mikula

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= SGML, DSSSL, Intra- & Internet, AI, Java 
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= mailto:nmikula@edu.uni-klu.ac.at 
= http://www.edu.uni-klu.ac.at/~nmikula
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Received on Saturday, 22 March 1997 07:29:06 UTC