Re: A simple guy with a simple problem

[Jonathan Borden <jborden@mediaone.net>]

Simon St.Laurent wrote:

> At 02:51 PM 3/15/01 -0500, Jonathan Borden wrote:
> >Firstly simple guys with simple problems _don't_ use internal subsets.
Just
> >because your toolset includes a fancy wrench doesn't mean that you ought
use
> >it for tightening a simple nut. My advice is to put that wrench away for
a
> >day in which your simple wrench doesn't work -- but don't throw it away
> >because the day you need it, you'll be glad its in your toolbox.
>
> I don't think Bob wants to use these things - he has to deal with an
> outside world where people send him such things, and regularly.  That
fancy
> wrench isn't anything he wants to use.

Right, and so we define 'equivalence' between two documents as
operationally:

1) parsing two documents produces the same SAX events
2) parsing two documents produces an equivalent DOM object

(that's the simple way of saying that these two documents have the same
infoset)

ok, so the point about validating vs. nonvalidating parsers is a good one
and so just tell Bob that if he accepts XML documents from external sources
with DOCTYPE definitions, then be sure to use a validating XML parser (or at
least one that handles external entities).

no fancy wrench needed.

-Jonathan