Can SOAP be called a XML protocol ? [was: why no doc type declaration and PIs in SOAP?]

While I understand the reasons why some of the XML features could be
left out of SOAP, I don't feel comfortable with the very idea of
subsetting XML.

Instead of simplifying the implementation of SOAP, this would be more
complex for people implementing on top of existing parsers and even
create a new kind of parsers.

The XML rec mentions [1] two different kinds of parsers:

[1]http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006#proc-types


<quote>
5.1 Validating and Non-Validating Processors

Conforming XML processors fall into two classes: validating and
non-validating.

Validating and non-validating processors alike must report violations
of this specification's well-formedness constraints in the content of
the document entity and any other parsed entities that they read.

[Definition: Validating processors must, at user option, report
violations of the constraints expressed by the declarations in the
DTD, and failures to fulfill the validity constraints given in
this specification.] To accomplish this, validating XML processors
must read and process the entire DTD and all external parsed
entities referenced in the document.

Non-validating processors are required to check only the document
entity, including the entire internal DTD subset, for
well-formedness. [Definition: While they are not required to
check the document for validity, they are required to process
all the declarations they read in the internal DTD subset and
in any parameter entity that they read, up to the first reference
to a parameter entity that they do not read; that is to say,
they must use the information in those declarations to normalize
attribute values, include the replacement text of internal
entities, and supply default attribute values.] Except
when standalone="yes", they must not process entity declarations
or attribute-list declarations encountered after a reference to
a parameter entity that is not read, since the entity may have
contained overriding declarations.
</quote>

Since non-validating parsers " are required to process
all the declarations they read in the internal DTD subset" a
SOAP parser couldn't be considered as a conforming parser at
all if it didn't accept an internal DTD and would be a
specific beast.

Could SOAP still be called a XML protocol in this condition?

Eric

-- 
See you in Scottsdale, Arizona.
       http://xmlconnections.com/xml/xmlfall2001/speakers.asp#evandervlist
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Eric van der Vlist       http://xmlfr.org            http://dyomedea.com
http://xsltunit.org      http://4xt.org           http://examplotron.org
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Received on Friday, 21 September 2001 13:10:03 UTC