xml-dev - XML syntax (was Re: external subset syntax)

[David Megginson <ak117@freenet.carleton.ca>]

james anderson writes:

 > my problem is, whenever i come to a point in the proposed
 > recommendation at which a parser is required to report an error and
 > "must not continue normal processing" even though the result which
 > the stream would denote would be sufficiently unambiguous if
 > allowed, then i feel compelled to ask, "why does one have to
 > exclude this"?
 [...]
 > more than likely, when i've followed discussions of similar
 > questions, the design goal #3 gets hoisted like a commandment: "XML
 > shall be compatible with SGML".

No, it's not SGML's fault, at least not this time.  Conforming SGML
parsers are allowed to continue processing if they want to, and are
even allowed not to report errors at all (as long as they don't claim
to be "validating parsers").  XML has gone way beyond any SGML
requirements with this one.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 ak117@freenet.carleton.ca
Microstar Software Ltd.         dmeggins@microstar.com
      http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dmeggins/

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