[xmlenc-devel] VOID_WITHIN_ELEMENT and short-circuiting

SourceForge Headquarters 1320 Columbia Street Suite 310 San Diego, CA 92101 +1 (858) 422-6466

Hey,

A while ago I've mentioned adding the state VOID_WITHIN_ELEMENT. This state 
would be entered when for example pcdata("") would be called in the state 
START_TAG_OPEN. This would make it possible to output a combined start/end 
tag instead of separate start/end tags.

Example:

   startTag("html");
   attribute("lang", "en");
   pcdata("");
   endTag();

Currently (xmlenc 0.21) this would produce the following XML:

   <html lang="en"></html>

But when VOID_WITHIN_ELEMENT is fully supported, then this would produce:

   <html lang="en"/>

Reconsidering this, I think I should not pursue this any further and remove 
all evidence I ever did. It's just getting away from simplicity.

The same applies to the short-circuiting when an empty string is printed. 
For example, currently (xmlenc 0.21) the following code:

   startTag("head");
   comment("");
   startTag("title");

produces the following XML:

   <head><title>

instead of the (perhaps expected):

   <head><!----><title>

I see no good reason to _keep_ the old behaviour. It's again conflicting 
with the principle of simplicity.

Ernst

-- 
Ernst de Haan
Development Team Leader
Wanadoo Nederland B.V.

    The Lord has truly risen!
    Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!