> But in the case of XML, we
> can have our cake (the fans of strict, codified naming rules can exactly
> specify what is allowed) *AND* eat it (bewildered parser-writers can just
> use simple tokenizing).
Not if they want to be conforming. All conforming XML processors are
required to detect well-formedness errrors. If a XML document uses a
character in a name that is not allowed, the document is not well-formed
and every conforming XML parser is required to report it and is required
not to process the document.
I think it would be better if well-formedness allowed simple tokenizing
to be used, and the detailed checking of name characters was needed only
for validity, but that's not how the spec is currently.
James