[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Feeler for SML (Simple Markup Language)

• From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
• To: xml-dev@i...
• Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 14:01:50 -0500

At 10:46 AM 11/15/99 -0800, Tim Bray wrote:
>>>Hmm.... just specify the use of a nonvalidating processor.  These have the 
>>>right to ignore external entities, not to barf, just to ignore them.  
>>
>>Nope, sorry, not that easy, unless you ...
>>put big warning labels throughout indicating that external
>>entities should not be used.  
>
>Right, that's it exactly.  Even if you happen to be using a processor
>that might try to resolve them.  Sorry, I just don't see this as a big deal.

Try explaining this glitch to people who don't understand XML well enough
to understand what an 'external entity' is a few hundred times, and perhaps
your opinion of its importance will change.  The guy who used '&mycompany;'
may know what it means, but the lucky troubleshooter on the other end may
well not know - and probably shouldn't have to know.

We're probably stuck with the mess, but unfortunately it's a very big deal
to certain classes of users, particularly those who'd like XML application
to process XML documents without a lot of oversight about 'what XML really
is'.

Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
Sharing Bandwidth / Cookies
http://www.simonstl.com

xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i...
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1
To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message;
unsubscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Feeler for SML (Simple Markup Language)
    • From: Eric Bohlman <ebohlman@n...>

• References:
  • Re: Feeler for SML (Simple Markup Language)
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>

• Prev by Date: International booleans proposal
• Next by Date: International booleans proposal (con't)
• Previous by thread: Re: Feeler for SML (Simple Markup Language)
• Next by thread: Re: Feeler for SML (Simple Markup Language)
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread