Re: REC-xml-19980210 unparsed entity

John Cowan (cowan@locke.ccil.org)
Thu, 15 Oct 1998 12:11:59 -0400


Richard Emberson wrote:

> In section 4.4, the spec states when a parsed general entity
> "occurs as Attribute value", it is forbidden which means that a
> fatal error has occurred.

I suppose this is an error on your part for "unparsed general entity"
or "parsed external entity". Parsed general entities include
internal entities, references to which are permitted.

> In section 3.3.1, part: "Validity Constraint: Entity Name",
> it is a validity constraint violation if the value is not a Name
> of an unparsed entity.
>
> It seems that there are two different actions for the same condition.

These are two distinct matters.

Clause 4.4 says that a *reference* to an external entity, parsed
or unparsed, is forbidden in attribute values. Doing so is a violation
of the WFC "No External Entity References" in clause 3.1.

Clause 3.3.1 says that the value of an entity attribute must be
the name of (not a reference to) an unparsed external entity.
That is a validity constraint, since non-validating parsers may
not be aware of the type of an attribute, and are free to treat
them all as CDATA.

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan@ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)