xml-dev - RE: tabs to indent for pretty-printing (is it correct?)

[David Valera <dvalera@pcl-hage.nl>]

> (either I'm a moron for thinking of this idea in the first
> place, or I'm a
> moron for not thinking of it earlier, I'm not sure which.)
>
> I indent the XML files I create so that nesting is more visible. eg.
> <parent>
>  <child>
>   <childOfchild/>
>  </child>
> </parent>
>
> instead of <parent><child><childOfchild/></child></parent>

> while slightly hack-y, it doesn't change the actual content
> of the XML file
> at all (of course I'm always talking about ignorable
> whitespace), and it
> makes a big difference for me, often cutting files to 2/3
> their original
> size.

Well, it is my inderstanding of the XML spec that it actually *does* change
the actual content since in the first example there are a few textnodes
(with tabs in it) that are not present in the second example. An XML
processor must always pass all characters in a document. Tabs and spaces are
such characters.

If I read the XML spec correctly, adding tabs and spaces to increase
readability is often done, but it is not intended to be saved as such
(significant whitespace excluded of course).

Could someone clarify this once and for all?

David Valera