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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] The J2ME pseudo-XML botch
 Text of a feedback note I just sent to the community-feedback address, cc Jon Ellis, the Sun guy who posted here: ============================================= I understand the proposed XML parsing facility in J2ME accepts not XML but a nonstandard subset which does not allow for the DOCTYPE declaration. It's OK to define a custom language for your own purposes, but it's not OK at all to use the term "XML" in describing it; this term is very precisely defined and is legally protected by the World Wide Web Consortium; anyone who offers software with XML in the name which is deliberately non-conformant to the specification is putting themselves in a very shaky position both legally and technically. I am not speaking for the W3C but if Java continues in this misguided direction I will pro-actively start taking measures to protect the integrity of the term "XML" via the W3C and public advocacy. On a technical front, and speaking as the author of the first-ever XML Parser in the Java language (non-validating), which had a bytecode footprint of less than 50k, I found that the code footprint caused by parsing the DTD was negligable. Now, external entity processing is expensive, but there is no requirement to do that. There is no requirement to fetch/process the external subset. Processing the internal subset does create an opening to the "billion laughs" DOS attack, but it would be perfectly reasonable to implement self-defense against that with a simple limit on the size of the internal entity stack, which would cost about one line of code. On the larger front, XML has succeeded quite remarkably in providing interoperability to a degree not observed in other data interchange facilities. There are indeed many programmers who read the XML spec or one of the 30 shelf-feet of books now on sale explaining it, and bash out software, and use MSIE or expat or something to sanity-check it, and send it out into the world. If J2ME advertises a nonstandard subset as "XML", this is a recipe for an interoperability disaster. Tim Bray - co-editor, XML 1.0 - co-editor, Namespaces in XML - member, W3C Technical Advisory Group 
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