Re: [xml-dev] The version number in XML documents

> This is unnecessary. The very first version of XML 1.0 clearly stated 
> that "Processors may signal an error if they receive documents 
> labeled with versions they do not support." There is no need to 
> change the spec now. If a processor finds it useful to reject an XML 
> 1.1 document because of the version number, then it is already 
> allowed to do so. No errratum is required to permit this.

There is currently a discussion going on regarding the Expat
parser, which does not currently check the version number.

The problem for us is: if we *must* throw an error if
we get a version <> "1.0", how would we deal with
documents that are labelled "1.1", but otherwise
would parse perfectly fine under 1.0 rules?

I can see that there may be quite a few such documents,
once version 1.1 is out.

Internally, we would prefer to simply report the version
using the XMLDeclHandler callback, and leave it up to the
next layer how this is dealt with.

Karl

Received on Monday, 22 July 2002 14:40:50 UTC