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RE: WD for Namespaces 1.1

• To: <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: WD for Namespaces 1.1
• From: "Peter Murphy" <peterm@f...>
• Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 11:52:33 +1000
• Importance: Normal
• In-reply-to: <031e01c1dbc7$98fae980$0400a8c0@scott>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rob Lugt [mailto:roblugt@e...]
>
> Gustaf Liljegren wrote:
>
>
> <going long (sorry)>
>
> It all started with the XML 1.0 declaration <?XML version="1.0"?>.  This
> signal, from the document to the XML processor, indicating what version of
> the spec it adheres to, is the root of the problem.
>
> I think it would be better if the XML processor worked out for itself
> whether a document conforms - and the user of the document should indicate
> to the processor what level of conformance he requires or
> expects.

[...]

> <conclusion>
> Get rid of the XML declaration and we can all be a lot more relaxed about
> making small, incremental changes to the XML specifications.  Does anyone
> agree, or should I get my flame-proof underwear on?
>
>

Apart from setting the XML version number, the declaration may describe the
character encoding for the document. Are we using ISO-8859-1, UTF-8,
SHIFT-JIS, KOI-8 or another character set altogether? Is the byte '0xff'
interpreted as a small umlaut y (as is general in western environments), or
as the Cyrillic small hard sign? [1] Yes, one could remove the declaration
and use UTF-8 to your heart's contents. However, many companies like using
old-time formats like ISO-8859-1; it's easier to edit XML with your standard
text editor. They would not like to lose this ability.

Nor - may I add - would they like older XML documents made invalid by
removing the XML declaration altogether.

> Kind regards
> Rob Lugt
> ElCel Technology
> http://www.elcel.com/
>

Regards,
Peter.

[1] http://koi8.pp.ru/koi8-r.gif

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