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Re: Gag me with a blunt …

• From: Susan Malaika <malaika@u...>
• To: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
• Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 19:04:03 -0800

I wrote the submission only after trying other options.
We had difficulty processing XML documents. Parsers
told us that documents were either invalid or not
well-formed, depending on where the … [NEL] gagme
character appeared. We lost time. What is wrong with
these XML documents? What is this invisible character?

 We tried to solve the problem. For example ...
   1. We asked OS390 to stop using gagme
        Answer: No - There is a lot of software from various
                        sources that supports or generates gagmes
   2. We asked that XML parsers convert gagme to [LF].
       Answer: No - Parsers must use standard converters
   3. We asked that parsers treat OS390 gagme as [LF]
       (analogous to Apple Macintosh [CR] )
       Answer: No - Parsers must comply with the XML specification
   4. We cleaned up documents (removed gagmes) just
        before presenting documents to parsers
        Answer: No  - We were encouraging the generation of
                        noncompliant XML documents. The documents
                        still contained the gagmes.

So I was like totally freaked out with the whole gagme situation.
There did not appear to be any more options - hence the
submission.

BTW for those who, like me, did not appreciate the "gag me with a .."
reference at first - please see the Valley Girl lyrics, e.g., at

http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Strictly_Commercial.html#Valley
 :-))
Susan Malaika, IBM

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