[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: MSXML DOM Special Chars Less Than 32
With all due respect, if you would have read the mail that prompted this question, the proposal was to change the role of character entitization. We are trying to solve a problem and that may mean to get rid of old rules while being backwards-compatible as far as possible and with as many agreement that we can get (ie. Get a rule into XML 1.1). Best regards Michael > -----Original Message----- > From: Mike Brown [mailto:mike@s...] > Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 20:44 PM > To: xml-dev@l... > Subject: Re: MSXML DOM Special Chars Less Than 32 > > James Clark wrote: > > > How would you serialize a C# string that contains the sequence > > > 0xD800,0xD800? If you serialize it as ��, then what > > > happens if somebody writes ��? Is that equivalent to > > > 𐀀? > > Michael Rys wrote: > > This is basically a question of the encoding. If you use UTF-16 then > > it's the parser's job to take �� and map it into the > > encoding of the target environment. If you use UCS-4 as the encoding, > > then you probably did not generate �� in the first place > > but 𐀀... > > With all due respect, this is nonsense. > > 1. A character reference is a lexical construct for representing a single > Unicode character by its decimal or hexadecimal code point. It is not a > generic mechanism for representing any code point, and it is not a > mechanism > for representing characters by their code values in some encoding form. > > A character reference must only reference a code point that corresponds to > a > Unicode character, and that character must be legal in XML. Character > references have nothing to do with encoding, and I hope this discussion is > not > proposing that XML change in this regard. > > 2. Code points 0xD800-0xDFFF are *not* mapped to characters in Unicode / > ISO/IEC 10646. That's why they're excluded from XML's char production. > There > is no character number 0xD800, and there never will be. > > 3. The only way to use character references to represent character # > 0x10000 > is to write 𐀀 or 𐀀. "��" is not well-formed > XML > (see WFC: Legal Character in sec. 4.1 of the spec). > > The answer to James' first question is that if the C# "string" is actually > a > sequence of 16-bit values, and there are no guarantees that these values > are > going to conform to the rules of UTF-16 or some other predictable > encoding, > then it is wrong to blindly serialize that data with a mechanism that > writes > out the hex values preceded by "&#x" and followed by ";". > > Just as one would do with the 0x0000-0x0008 and other control characters, > you > look at it before you serialize it, and say "can I put this in XML or > not", > and if it's no way you can make a legal character out of it, then you > ignore > it, or you raise an exception, or (though I don't agree with this), you > use > "?". You don't emit malformed XML. > > > I understand that Michael Kay is proposing that the well-formedness > constraint > be modified such that "�" is legal but the bytewise encoded NUL is > not, > and perhaps the discussion above is based on "what if" that kind of thing > were > allowed. I have issues with his proposal as well, but at least the 0x0- > 0x1F > code points do map to actual characters, whereas "�" and "�" > and > (as another example) "" do not. > > FWIW, I am strongly against changing the definition of a character > reference > in order to make "�" allowable. Let's not proceed with theoretical > arguments that assume character references are more complex or flexible > than > they actually are. > > - Mike > ________________________________________________________________________ __ > __ > mike j. brown | xml/xslt: http://skew.org/xml/ > denver/boulder, colorado, usa | resume: http://skew.org/~mike/resume/ > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an > initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription > manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl>
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|