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A question for parsing experts: How to recognize that '<' denotes thebeg

• From: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>
• To: "xml-dev@lists.xml.org" <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
• Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:52:50 +0000

Hi Folks,

Suppose you are scanning an XML document or HTML document from the first character to the last character.

In the scanning process, you encounter a less than ( '<' ) symbol.

You must determine if it denotes the beginning of a start tag.

What checks must be made to make this determination?

I think these are the checks:

Let c = the character currently being examined.
Let nextchar = the character following c

if c == '<' and nextchar != '/' and nexchar != '!' and nextchar != '?' then we are at the beginning of a start tag

Do you agree? Am I missing any checks?

/Roger

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: A question for parsing experts: How to recognize that'<' denotes the beginning of a start tag?
    • From: "Liam R. E. Quin" <liam@fromoldbooks.org>
  • Re: A question for parsing experts: How to recognize that'<' denotes the beginning of a start tag?
    • From: David Carlisle <d.p.carlisle@gmail.com>
  • Re: A question for parsing experts: How to recognize that'<' denotes the beginning of a start tag?
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>