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Re: XML and mainframes, yet again (was RE: Somecomme

• To: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>
• Subject: Re: XML and mainframes, yet again (was RE: Somecomments on the 1.1 draft)
• From: John Cowan <cowan@m...>
• Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 21:28:33 -0500 (EST)
• Cc: "Champion, Mike" <Mike.Champion@S...>, xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <p04330100b840f557d186@[192.168.254.4]> from Elliotte Rusty Haroldat "Dec 15, 2001 09:08:27 am"

Elliotte Rusty Harold scripsit:

> IBM has some brain damaged text editors that insert a #x85 every time 
> you hit the return key instead of inserting a #xA or #xD or both. 
> Files created with these editors are not well-formed XML without an 
> additional conversion pass. Similarly, IBM has some programming 
> languages and tools that generate a #x85 when they do a println() or 
> that language's equivalent.  That's all.

In short, #x85 is the standard line-end character on the platform.

As I have said before, all these things could be said about the other
minority platforms.  Would XML have flown if #xD #xA were the only
recognized line-end?

> It has everything to do with IBM not wanting to update their 
> software to the standards the rest of the world has been using for 
> more than 20 years.

The same can be said of Unix.

> Here's what you'll
> see if you open up the document containing that tag on a typical 
> Windows text editor:
> 
> <name...  att1="value"...  att2="value"...  att3="value"...>
> 
> (Actual ellipsis characters will be used instead of three periods, 
> but you get the idea.) Open it on a Mac and all the ellipses will 
> change into O with two dots above instead.

That is because those platforms can't cope well with non-native
encodings.  See my earlier posting for why #x85 is not the same
as hex byte 85.

-- 
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@c...
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan

• References:
  • Re: XML and mainframes, yet again (was RE: Some comments on the 1.1 draft)
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>

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