[Plplot-devel] Problem with SGML entity not defined

[Rafael L. <ra...@de...>]

Hi,

I am still without access to my email and production workstation, but I am
following the discussion in the mailing list through the web.  Thanks for
your efforts, Alan, regarding the Perl modules.  Joao: I was half-joking
about your "pestering" after the Perl modules and Docbook.  Actually, I am
pleased and surprised that even if you dislike the DocBook markup, you are
still contributing with the documentation and willing to get things working.

Contrary to Joao, I dislike visual editors (like LyX and the Mozilla
Composer).  When I edit LaTeX and HTML/SGML/XML, I use AUC-TeX and
PSGML-mode, respectively, under XEmacs.  They are not WYSIWYG tools
(fortunately!), but they are incredible helpers.  With a normal editor, I
would find it almost impossible to do productive work with such "verbose
technologies".

These comments apart, let me share with you some insights I had about the
source of the problem that Joao is experiencing.  The error message that he
is getting now is:

    undefined entity at line 2915, column 62, byte 85921 at 
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/i586-linux-thread-multi/XML/Parser.pm line
    185
    
This is not related to a parsing error or ill-formed XML, so the Perl
modules are working fine for him.  I looked at the position of the file and
the script is choking at a "°" entity use.  I traced down in my
computer, and I discovered that this entity is defined in file

    /usr/share/sgml/entities/xml-iso-entities-8879.1986/ISOnum.ent

which is included in DocBook through:

   /usr/share/sgml/docbook/dtd/xml/4.2/dbcentx.mod

In Debian, the former file is in package sgml-data (version 1.8) and the
later in docbook-xml (version 4.2-6).  Notice that sgml-data is a native
package of Debian, which includes definitions for several different markup
languages.  Debian (as usual) has a very sophisticated dependency and
organisational system that insures that things work correctly.  In the case
of SGML/XML, all the infrastructure is well implemented, such that catalogs
are correctly found, for instance.

In sum, I do not think that Joao's present problems are related to Perl
modules that are lacking or outdated, but purely related to problematic
SGML/XML infrastructure in rpm-based systems.

Some time ago I made a private joke to Alan saying that it would be easier
to convert all the developers to Debian instead of trying to fix those
crappy rpm-based systems. ;-)

Of course, I was only half-joking...

-- 
Rafael (aka Debian Evangelist)