RE: Microsot parser is OK (Was: Re: Copyright symbol in FOP)

[Jonathan Marsh <jmarsh at microsoft dot com>]

Mike Kay wrote:
> I suspect an XML parser should report this as an error. The 
> XML version of
> the XML specification itself, however, contains the line 
> 
> <!ENTITY lt     "<">
> 
> and most parsers accept it: but IE5 doesn't. For once I think 
> MS are in the
> right.

The XML Core Working Group looked at this issue at our behest, and has
confirmed that the above entity is mal-formed, but a parser should only
report an error if this entity is actually referenced.  Errata are in the
process of being issued to clarify this.  In the case of the XML spec
itself, a correct declaration exists (if I recall correctly) that overrides
the faulty declaration, so the entity is never referenced and no errors
should result.

However, DOM Level 1 states that for each entity declaration, an entity node
is built.  It makes no provision for malformed but un-referenced entities,
assuming that the XML parser will take care of all well-formedness issues.
There appears to be a hole in the standards, best addressed by an errata
against DOM Level 1.  Until then, we have a dilemma over which
recommendation we want to conform to.  The solution we judged to be cleanest
to let the parser determine well-formedness.

Note that there is an additional ambiguity over the extent (if any) that the
built-in entities can be redeclared, which may be contributing to the
non-interoperable results described.

- Jonathan Marsh
  Microsoft


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