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Re: What is @xml:space about?

• From: Pete Cordell <petexmldev@codalogic.com>
• To: John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>
• Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2012 07:33:06 +0100

Any insights on why xml:space is considered useful, but something like
xml:href is not?  (I'm assuming xml:space is an indication to the
application, not handled directly by the XML parser.)

I can't see why an application that wasn't vocabulary aware would
start manipulating whitespace (or anything else for that matter).  If
an application was vocabulary aware then the vocabulary could define
it's own attribute for xml:space and it needn't be in the xml
namespace.

That said, I think something like xml:space is a convenient convention
to have, but I also think xml:href is too.  Thus I'm interested in the
difference in treatment.

Thx

Pete Cordell
Codalogic Ltd
Interface XML to C++ the easy way using XML C++
data binding to convert XSD schemas to C++ classes.
Visit http://codalogic.com/lmx/ or http://www.xml2cpp.com
for more info


On 12 July 2012 04:46, John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org> wrote:
> John P. McCaskey scripsit:
>
>> Is there an established way for an XML document to announce to
>> downstream processors what "default" processing -- trim, collapse,
>> pre-line, nowrap, etc. -- was assumed in the encoding?
>
> No, there isn't.  What counts as the Right Thing depends on the consuming
> application.  The point of xml:space="preserve" is to persuade the
> consumer that the producer intends for the whitespace to convey important
> information.  The alternative is that the producer doesn't really care.
>
> So if the producer wants to make sure that whitespace is normalized,
> the best approach is to do its own normalization and then add
> xml:space="preserve" to prevent the consumer from doing its own thing
> with it.
>
> --
> LEAR: Dost thou call me fool, boy?      John Cowan
> FOOL: All thy other titles              http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
>              thou hast given away:      cowan@ccil.org
>       That thou wast born with.
>
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• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: What is @xml:space about?
    • From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>

• References:
  • What is @xml:space about?
    • From: "John P. McCaskey" <groups@johnmccaskey.com>
  • Re: What is @xml:space about?
    • From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>
  • Re: What is @xml:space about?
    • From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>
  • Re: What is @xml:space about?
    • From: "John P. McCaskey" <groups@johnmccaskey.com>
  • Re: What is @xml:space about?
    • From: John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>