Re: Testing 2 XML documents for equality - a solution

Hi Dimitre,
  Please read my response below your comments..

> Two XML documents will be considered
> equal
> > if all their nodes are identical(i.e. element,
> text,
> > attribute, namespace etc).
> 
> This is not a precise definition of "document
> equality".

oh! Please don't take my definition of "document
equality" from a pure mathematical view point. Its not
as in "is 2=3 ?" . Did you got that impression from my
definition? I meant that 2 XML documents will be equal
if they have identical node structure. i.e. abstract
structure of 2 documents should be identical and not
at byte stream level(this was not my goal).

Another definition for the problem I am trying to
solve would be, XML documents will be same if they
*look similar* in a text editor like nodepad..

so, document
<x>
 <a i="1">
</x>
will be equivalent to 
<x>
 <a i="1">
</x>

but not to
<x>
 <a i="2">
</x>

Yet another definition that applies to my problem
would be ! 2 documents will be equal if they produce
same output by an XSLT identity transform..

The "same, equivalent" are better words than "equal"
to the problem I was trying to solve..

> Trying to solve an imprecisely formulated problem is
> not a
> well-founded and understood activity.

True!

> Generally, there is no solution to incorrectly
> formulated problems,
> therefore lets return to solving real problems.
> 

:) Of course

Regards,
Mukul

> Cheers,
> Dimitre Novatchev




		
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