CDATA by any other name... (was The raw and the cooked)

[David Brownell]

Rick Jelliffe wrote:
> 
> 	 marked sections actually mark up
> notations: at ISO there has been discussion of whether to allow something
> like (for example)
>         <![JAVA[ java code here ]]>

While I applaud the ongoing proliferation of real Java(tm), I admit I
don't like that either ... <Java><![CDATA[ java code ]]></Java> has
worked just as well, and does no damage to XML.  (Not as pretty though!)


> This is not something that I would expect to make its way into XML (and I
> think the ISO people are now more keen to help XML/WebSGML than on tidying
> up SGML) but I think the idea that a marked section

... but XML has only "CDATA" sections.  There's no such thing as
a "marked" section, and "CDATA" is specified to be character data
terminated by a "]]>" sequence.  No notion of marking/labeling.


>	 not only alters
> delimiter recognition but also labels the data can be seen (in embryo or
> residually) in DOMs elevation of CDATAsection to node-worthiness, which has
> so perplexed Henry.

Keep in mind that DOM implementations are not required to import
an XML document using CDATASection nodes ... Sun's just uses it
to determine _how to write out_ the text, if someone adds such a
node to a DOM tree they've constructed.  The "<" and "&" markup
delimiters don't get quoted like they must be for normal text,
and "]]>" gets funkified differently.


> I think the answer is clear from the spec:
> [43]  content ::=  (element | CharData | Reference | CDSect | PI | Comment)*
> so a CDSect is not CharData. Therefore a CDSect is only valid in mixed
> content, even though it is well-formed to have it in element content.

I can't buy that conclusion.  Among other things, that production has
no constraints relating to "mixed content".  Is this an argument that
cosmetic whitespace, comments, and PIs likewise must exist only inside
mixed content?

- Dave

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