RE: [xml-dev] If XML is too hard for a programmer, perhaps he'd b e better off as a crossing guard

 (Jeff Lowery) writes:
>Actually, CDATA and entities had completely escaped my mind,  because
>I spend more time developing XML formats for data records:
>fine-grained, atomic, local, and datatyped.  Sure, that doesn't rule
>out the possibility of CDATA or entity occurrences, but using them
>would be an exercise in silliness for the types of documents I've been
>parsing lately.  

I'm currently writing code for selectively inserting and removing CDATA
sections from documents, largely because a a certain data-centric piece
of software insists on adding them any time I try to use markup in its
fields.  It is an exercise in silliness, but sometimes that silliness
comes from the data side.

>Nonetheless, regex is perfectly suitable for parsing XML in narrow,
>provincial, tightly constrained and content-controlled circumstances. 
>
>Now, I ask you, ... is that too much to expect?    

I don't think it is.

>The problem with the
>world today is that it's just too darn liberally parameterized.

With no warning of the parameters, either.  Makes me miss the SGML
Declaration....

-- 
Simon St.Laurent
Ring around the content, a pocket full of brackets
Errors, errors, all fall down!
http://simonstl.com -- http://monasticxml.org