Re: [xml-dev] Ambiguities in section 4.3.2 of XML 1.0 SE

[John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>]

Perry A. Caro scripsit:

> [T]his would imply that the following declaration in an internal DTD subset
> would result in an internal general parsed entity that is not well-formed:
> 
> <!ENTITY cdend "]]>">
> 
> ... because the replacement text does not match the [43] content production.

Yes.

> If so ...
> 
> 1) This contradicts statements about Literals in section 2.3, namely:
> 
>   Literal data is any quoted string not containing the quotation mark
>   used as a delimiter for that string. Literals are used for
>   specifying the content of internal entities (EntityValue),

That does not mean that *every* literal is capable of being used to
specify a well-formed internal entity declaration.  The restriction of
matching the content production is superadded to the definition of a
literal.

> Furthermore, [10] AttValue also permits "]]>". It would be nonsensical for
> <foo bar="]]>"/> to be well-formed, but not <foo bar="&cdend;"/>, using the
> entity declaration above.

There are occasional anomalies of this sort, which are of no consequence.
When fooling around with "]]>", always use "]]&gt;" instead -- it was
for this reason that &gt; was provided in XML.

If you think it's a problem, mail it to xml-editor@w3.org .

-- 
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand
on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability.
Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land,
to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions.
        --Thomas Henry Huxley