Is whitespace within general entities ignorable?

[Rob Lugt <roblugt@elcel.com>]

Back to basics time again.  I'm looking for clarification within the XML 1.0
recommendation whether or not white space within GEs should be treated as
ignorable or significant.

Section 2.10 mentions the distinction between significant and insignificant
white space but doesn't give a definition. The validity constraint in
Section 3(2) for element content talks about the white space surrounding
child elements having to match the non terminal S[3] - but is this after
entity substitution has been performed?

Time for an example.  There is an element <test> which has element-only
content.  In the document the general entity &entws; is referenced within
the <test> element.   Given that &entws; contains only white space, do you
think
that a validating processor should complain or not?  And if the processor
lets it through, should the white space
be reported as ignorable or not?

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE test [
<!ELEMENT test (child)*>
<!ENTITY entws "   ">
]>
<test>
 &entws;
</test>

If we say that it is illegal to have white space within the GE, then
something like this would also be illegal:-
<!ENTITY entws "   <child/>  ">

Secondly, what if the content model of <test> was changed to EMPTY?  Would
this make any difference to your view?  It appears to me that including the
reference to &entws; creates content - which is illegal for EMPTY elements.

And finally, what if &entws; was declared as: <!ENTITY entws "&#9;">.  Would
that make any difference?

Kind regards
Rob Lugt
ElCel Technology
http://www.elcel.com