Re: [boost] scope of ptree-xml parser

From: Daniel Walker (daniel.j.walker_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-04-28 19:17:14

On 4/24/06, Marcin Kalicinski <kalita_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> > Right. FWIW, I think Dan Nuffer's XML parser is not a hack.
> > The spirit XML parsers implement the full XML grammar.
> >
> > http://spirit.sourceforge.net/repository/applications/show_contents.php
>
> My knowledge of XML is limited, but I think Dan Nuffer's parser will
> parse any valid XML. read_xml however discards all that goes beyond nodes,
> attributes, data and comments.

Isn't the property_tree XML parser originally based on Dan Nuffer's?
Couldn't the productions/tokens from the Nuffer parser be added back
to read_xml() so that it could at least accept the syntax for all XML
files even if it doesn't implement the semantics? I think the runtime
overhead of the additional productions in the grammar would be
negligible for simple XML files that don't use the features and
necessary for XML files that do. It seems to me this could clarify the
scope of the parser. The documentation could read something like:

"read_xml() preforms non-validated parsing of the W3C recommendation
XML 1.1. In addition, as of version 1.3x, read_xml() parses but
ignores the following W3C specifications:  XML Names, XInclude,
XLink/XPointer, XML Schema, XSLT, ..."

... changing version numbers as appropriate. Also, it may simplify
maintenance as far as pulling bug-fixes/enhancements from the Nuffer
parser code-base to property_tree.

Daniel Walker