SGML, XML and SML

[Nik O]

Kragen Sitaker wrote:
>
>I suspect CDATA sections are hard to live
>without if you're writing XML documents about
>HTML or XML, though.

I disagree.  Since a CDATA section cannot contain the "]]>" literal string,
the HTML/XML source being included in such a section must still be filtered
prior to inclusion in the XML document.  If you've conceded that a filter
must be applied, why not just filter for "<" and "&" instead (a generically
useful filter, BTW)?

Thus, the filtered XML might look like:
  <html_source>&lt;A HREF="www.w3.org"&gt;</html_source>

..whilst an alternate version is:
  <html_source><![CDATA[<A HREF="www.w3.org">]]></html_source>

I don't really see that using the equivalent CDATA section is all that much
easier to read or construct in the raw form, and once displayed in a browser
it's all good.

I am also in agreement with those who wish that CDATA had never made it into
XML, and believe that this would be a key simplification in SML, since
general XML parsing rules are overturned within CDATA sections.

Regards,
 Nik O, Teton Data Systems / Teton NewMedia, Jackson, Wyo.



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