Re: XML Base comment

At 00/07/26 12:03 -0700, John Boyer wrote:
>I realize this is after the last call period, but the matter was brought 
>to my attention after the last call period for XML base.

The issue itself is known. But I'm glad to see that you found it yourself.

>XML base is restricted from applying to external entities.  However, when 
>you c14n a document, the external entity content is brought into the 
>document, so xml:base will apply to it.
>
>Right now, I have language in c14n that propagates xml:base to descendant 
>elements in the case of document subsets, but the problem above occurs 
>even when one does a c14n of the whole document.
>
>I think c14n is doing the right thing in that it is consistent with what 
>xml:base should do:  the entities are no longer external, so xml:base 
>attributes from ancestors should apply to them.  It think the problem is 
>that the meaning of the content is changed based on where we get it from.
>
>We have no way of retaining information on content derived from external 
>entities.  In particular, the feature seems to contradict the language of 
>section 4.4.2 of XML 1.0:
>
>"An entity is included when its 
><http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#dt-repltext>replacement text 
>is retrieved and processed, in place of the reference itself, as though it 
>were part of the document at the location the reference was recognized. "
>
>Since the replacement text should be treated 'as though it were part of 
>the document', we should not introduce an attribute into the xml namespace 
>that violates this concept.

Thank you for finding this text. I wasn't aware of it.


Regards,   Martin.

Received on Friday, 28 July 2000 18:56:17 UTC