>
> Sean Russell wrote:
> > I didn't realize that " and ' were required by the XML spec to be converted
> > to entities.  Where does it say this in the XML spec?
>
> I always thought that they only needed to be converted to entities when
> used in attributes. Inside element text, there would be no ambiguity
> that I can think off.
>
> So I second the "show me the spec" ;-)

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml#syntax


Quote characters are fine, so long as there is no ambiguity when used inside an attribute value.
 <foo bar='Ain't it cool!' /> # Evil

This is mal-formed because that second apostrophe indicates the end of the attribute value. Then comes some more text that doesn't
parse well.
  <foo bar="Ain't it cool!" />  # OK

Changing the quote style works, but you may not always know, or control, how an XML builder will quote your attribute data.  So, you
have to watch for this, too:
  <foo bar="Give me an "A"!" />  # Ow!

It's not the characters themselves that are a problem, it's the context.

Having REXML automagicaly convert these to their entity references helps avoid these sorts of conflicts.


James


>
> --
> <[ Kent Dahl ]>================<[ http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~kentda/ ]>