xml-dev - Re: SAX RFD: ModSAX Predefined Features

[David Megginson <david@megginson.com>]

Lars Marius Garshol writes:

 > | Lars suggested a "Catalog" feature.  There are different sorts of
 > | catalog, and they need configuration, so the value of this could be
 > | a URI for the catalog, not just a boolean.  
 > 
 > There should be a catalog parameter as well, but the reason I proposed
 > this as a feature rather than just as a parameter is that SP and
 > xmlproc both allow you to use environment variables to point to a
 > default catalog file, which is rather handy.
 > 
 > So it would definitely be useful to be able to tell the parser, go
 > read the default catalog, wherever it is. (Or don't.) Java parsers
 > could use a Java property to achieve the same thing.
 > 
 > BTW: I'm surprised that David Megginson hasn't replied to this.
 >      David, Some kind of confirmation that you've at least seen this
 >      would be welcome. (I know majordomo isn't 100% trustworthy, so it
 >      might have disappeared on the way.)

Please don't be surprised -- depending on how new a suggestion is,
sometimes I like to sit back and hear different people's opinions for
a few hours or a few days before blurting out my own.  On this topic,
I'm a little uncomfortable putting in a core feature for catalogues
when XML catalogue formats haven't settled yet (likewise, I don't
include a feature for data typing, though some kind of data typing
will undoubtedly arrive before long).

It would probably make more sense for the promoters of different
catalogue formats to define their own properties and/or features, such 
as

  http://www.oasis.org/sax/features/entity-catalog

That way, we won't have any unpleasant surprises when a user expects a
parser to use one type of catalogue and the parser finds another
instead.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 david@megginson.com
           http://www.megginson.com/

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