Entity substition in non-validating parsers (was RE: EMBED and validation)

Rob McDougall (RMcDouga@JetForm.com)
Mon, 1 Dec 1997 14:29:26 -0500

Now I understand about external entities(or at least I think I do :) ).
This raises another question. In using the "C" version of the MSXML
processor, I've found that it ignores the DTD entirely (including any
entities that I've defined in either subset of the DTD). This is mildly
annoying because I'd like the speed of a non-validating processor, but
would like the convenience of doing entity substitution. To my mind the
two issues are not necessarily linked.

The XML spec only distinguishes between validating and non-validating
processors in terms of "report[ing] violations of the constraints
expressed ... in the DTD". It says nothing about ignoring/utilising any
non-"constraint" information contained in the DTD.

Is the way the MSXML "C" processor works correct? Can I expect that
sort of behaviour out of all non-validating processors? If so, can we
designate a third class of processors that process entity substitution,
but do not perform validation? It seems unfair that this is such an
"all or nothing" affair. It also seems to mean that we cannot do file
inclusion using the external entity method Eve outlined unless a
document is not only well-formed, but is also valid.

At the very least, can we add some words about entity substitution to
the "Conformance" section of the XML spec?

Rob
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Rob McDougall Phone: (613)751-4800 ext.5232
JetForm Corporation Fax: (613)751-4864
http://www.jetform.com mailto:rmcdouga@jetform.com
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