Re: [xml] ATTRIBUTE NAME validation problem

[Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml behnel de>]

Hi,

Mike Hommey wrote:
> But that's still true that the XML declaration spec tells : is a valid
> attribute name in an ATTLIST. ::::::::::: is, too.
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#NT-Name
>
> That's puzzling.

Hmm, interesting. Even the errata list this as a valid production for a Name.

http://www.w3.org/XML/xml-V10-4e-errata#E09

There, it even says:

"""
Document authors are encouraged to use names which are meaningful words or
combinations of words in natural languages, and to avoid symbolic or white
space characters in names. Note that COLON, HYPHEN-MINUS, FULL STOP (period),
LOW LINE (underscore), and MIDDLE DOT are explicitly permitted.
"""

However, I assume that the reason is simply the support for XML namespaces,
which explicitly exclude the ':' in their NCName production:

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/#ns-decl
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/#ns-qualnames

So, a namespace aware parser is absolutely allowed to treat "::::::" names as
an error.

Stefan