RE: Non-deterministic content model

[Frank Richards <frichards@softquad.com>]

>
> Ok, now that I think I understand deterministic vs. non-deterministic
> that leads to a couple of other questions:
>
> 1) Would rewriting the above as <!ELEMENT a (x,(x|y))?> convert the
> original content model to a deterministic one?  As I now
> understand the
> rules, I believe the rewritten content model to be deterministic.  At
> 'a' I can either have 'x' or nothing.  If I have 'x', it must then be
> followed by a single 'x' or 'y'.

That is correct.


> 2) If the rewritten form in (1) is indeed deterministic, will
> parsers do
> the boolean algebra for me to get from the original content
> model to the
> rewritten one, or is this going to be a point of
> incompatibility between
> parsers?  XML-Spy seems very happy to validate using either form.

It is a point of incompatibility: From experience, XML Spy and XMetal (I
work for Softquad) will accept it, msxml will not.

Frank