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

Re: Why the Infoset?

• From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
• To: "xml-dev@x..." <xml-dev@x...>
• Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 11:01:20 -0400

At 02:37 PM 8/2/00 -0400, Paul W. Abrahams wrote:

> The debate over the Infoset might be clarified and sharpened by
> considering the following normative statement, to be added to the
> Infoset spec:
>
> Whenever two XML textual constructs map into a single construct of
> the Infoset, an XML processor must produce identical output for those
> textual constructs.

I think this requirement is way too strong, and leads to one of
two extreme positions:

1) A minimal Infoset that reports only those things a non-validating
parser must report: nothing about external entities, no DTD information,
no element names (well, maybe element names).

2) Require all parsers to be full validating parsers, and defined the
Infoset in terms of what full validating parsers do.

Clearly #1 makes the Infoset useless, and #2 will cause a massive uproar.
But an intermediate position will either let two constructs be
distinct in the Infoset but not in a parser, or vice versa.

-- 
John Cowan                                   cowan@c...
C'est la` pourtant que se livre le sens du dire, de ce que, s'y conjuguant
le nyania qui bruit des sexes en compagnie, il supplee a ce qu'entre eux,
de rapport nyait pas.               -- Jacques Lacan, "L'Etourdit"


-- 

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)

• Prev by Date: Re: Why the Infoset?
• Next by Date: Douglas Lenat - Key note at Extreme
• Previous by thread: Re: Reality Check (was: Why the Infoset?)
• Next by thread: Re: Are there still a lot of people using DTD rather than schema?
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread