Re: SAX and whitespace (was Re: Problems with whitespace and

Tim Bray (tbray@textuality.com)
Fri, 02 Jan 1998 10:14:34 -0800

At 09:57 AM 01/01/98 -0500, David Megginson wrote:
>What the PR means to say here is that a DTD-driven XML parser has to
>treat whitespace in element content differently than whitespace in
>mixed content -- this, of course, has nothing to do with xml:space.
>If there is no DTD, then all element types are assumed to allow mixed
>content, so a DTD-driven XML parser ("validating XML processor") would
>report all whitespace as significant.
>
>What should SAX do with ignorable whitespace?

SAX must pass all whitespace in the document, without exception,
through to the application. This is the only remotely conformant
behavior. The mark-insignificant-WS stuff only is possible in
the case you're validating, and users of SAX surely do not expect
a validating-processor underneath. -Tim