More Conformance Test suite questions

[Gary Stephenson <garys@ihug.com.au>]

Hi all,

A question arose recently concerning whether content-models should be checked
for determinism if the current document does not actually refer to them.  In a
similar vein ....

The following collectively form the "pe01" test from the Sun suite:

//  pe01.xml

<!DOCTYPE root SYSTEM "pe01.dtd">
<root/>

//  pe01.dtd

<!ENTITY % bad-pe SYSTEM "pe01.ent">
<!ELEMENT root EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST root
    something   CDATA                   "%bad-pe;"
    evil        (doctor | scott)        "doctor"
    >

//  pe01.ent

This is not a legal parameter entity, because
it does not match the "markupdecl" production.

//  end of pe01.ent

My question is:  Given that the reference to "bad-pe" is _not_ to be expanded
(due to it's appearance in an attribute value), is a validator required to
open and attempt to parse the malformed external entity "pe01.ent"?  Obviously
this test is predicated on an affirmative answer, but is it correct?

many tias,

gary