Re: Parameter Entity Reference Considered Harmful

Trevor Jenkins (tfj@apusapus.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 4 Sep 1997 01:53:48 +0000 (GMT)

> In making one more pass through the official grammar for XML, before
> I despatch my alternative version to the 5 people who've requested
> copies, I spotted a real dumb error in the doctype declaration.

Since posting this I did something even more useful. :-) I went back
to ISO 8879 in which, of course, the use of paremeter entity
references is allowed in both the "internal" and "external" subsets.

As a programmer I reckon that the different handling of parameter
entities between the internal and external subsets makes things MORE
complicated rather than simpler.

I knew there was something wrong with the avowed claim that XML was a
subset of SGML. If they're to be allowed (and they are allowed in
some odd places in XML) then let them occur wherever SGML lets them
occur.

Regards, Trevor.

--


"Real Men don't Read Instruction Manuals"
   Tim Allen, Home Improvement