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Re: An incompatible CData idea

• From: Toby Speight <tms@a...>
• To: "XML developers' list" <xml-dev@i...>
• Date: 27 Oct 1997 18:20:05 +0000

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David> David G. Durand <URL:mailto:david@d...>

> In article <9710271217.ZM22092@i...>, David
> wrote:

David> It is. CDATA is not legal in XML DTDs at all (mostly because
David> it's rather broken -- any occurence of the "</" delimiters
David> closes the element).

David> Instead, you must use CDATA marked sections:
>>  <![ CDATA [ <contents> to </be> quoted ]]>

David> If you need the ]]> delimiter in the CDATA area, you must
David> escape it via the use of entities.

I thought you couldn't use entities within CDATA marked sections
(since '&' and '&#' are no longer recognised as markup).

IIRC, the only way to write ']]>' in a CDATA section is to re-write it
as two sections, with literal text in between:

>  <![ CDATA [ <contents> to </be> quoted, a literal]]> ]]><![ CDATA
>  [, and more <contents> to </be> quoted.]]>

(although I might choose to write the #PCDATA using entities if it
helps my editor's parenthesis-matching ;-)

If you want to automate this on stuff you're including into XML
source, try this sed incantation:

sed -e 's/]]>/]]>&<![ CDATA [/g'  -e '1s/^/<![ CDATA [/'  -e '$s/$/]]>/'
# I didn't use i (insert) or a (append), since they introduce
# line-breaks :-(

(Using entities may or may not be a better move, depending on one's
assessment of the source material.  It's an inescapable fact that all
included material needs a stage of processing before insertion.  In
fact, the more I think about it, the more dangerous I think CDATA
marked sections are, because they enable one to get away with it
*almost every time*, thus increasing the likelihood of a quick-fix
solution appearing to work despite containing an (obscure) bug.)



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    • From: Jarle Stabell <jarle.stabell@d...>
  • Re: An incompatible CData idea
    • From: "David G. Durand" <david@d...>

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