Use of '&' in element of XML Document

[David Brownell]

[ Really about the XML spec, not the use of '&' in documents ]

> To recap, the contentious paragraph on predefined entities at:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml#sec-predefined-ent
> says, in its entirety:
> 
> All XML processors must recognize these entities whether they are 
> declared or not. For interoperability, valid XML documents should 
> declare these entities, like any others, before using them. If the 
> entities in question are declared, they must be declared as 
> internal entities whose replacement text is the single character
> being escaped or a character reference to that character, as
> shown below. 

I also support the conclusion that this doesn't restrict the actual
declaration to the example "shown below" ... I just can't interpret
the English (above) that way.  The spec could be changed so it has to
be read that way, but I see no reason to do so.  The restriction is
written to be on the semantics of the replacement text, not that one
character reference syntax be precluded.

While some XML (or SGML) processor might demand the literal text
found in the example, I'd call such insistence a bug.

- Dave




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