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Re: Namespace Identifiers - URI, URN, URL?
[Michael Beddow]> Sorry about the previous empty posting!
> So the original posting ought to have read:
> "Just be sure your document uses UTF-8 encoding if you
> don't put it, because that's the default encoding..."
> then continued:
> "Any bytes in your XML document that are not part of a valid
> utf-8 encoding sequence will cause your XML document to become invalid"
> and concluded with:
> "It's better to put the XML declaration in and explicitly state the
> encoding used"
>
This makes it seem as if there might be a difference between declaring UTF-8
encoding and omitting the encoding declaration (although actually there
wouldn't be a difference). The problem you mentioned about declaring
iso-8859-1 but actually including non-ascii characters is just as likely to
happen in reverse with many computers, especially with older operating
systems or applications.
The real trouble is that a person can't easily determine what the true - as
opposed to the claimed or imagined - encoding really is. Until this is
possible, the encoding declaration can still turn out the be inaccurate. It
seems we need a document checker that can determine if a document's actual
encoding is consistent with some particular declaration.
As a nit, aren't encoding problems a lexical issue (as opposed to a
validity issue)? They get discovered and handled (or not) even before
well-formedness checking, don't they?
Cheers,
Tom P
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