Whitespace

[Randy Bryan]

Thanks John for your reply.
You state that xml:space="default" is the attribute used
when it's not explicitly stated.

It is difficult for me to understand the XML Spec.
See the quote-section-2.10 below.
It led me to believe that xml:space="preserve" is used
when not specified.
But then other parts of the spec conflict with that assumption.

You've set me straight.  xml:space="default" is used
at the root when not explicitly stated.  Thanks. 


<quote-John>
That said, why would you want to explicitly set it to the default in the
top-level element (or, even if it were legal, in the XML declaration)? That
would be redundant. The only place xml:space="default" makes sense is in
the context of an ancestor element with xml:space="preserve". Like:

        <poetry xml:space="preserve">
                <epigraph xml:space="default">
                        On the occasion of the poet's
                        crackup.
                </epigraph>
                <stanza>
                        [etc.]
</quote-John>

<quote-section-2.10>
   An XML processor must always pass all characters in a document that
   are not markup through to the application. A validating XML processor
   must also inform the application which of these characters constitute
   white space appearing in element content.
</quote-section-2.10>



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