Re: [boost] scope of ptree-xml parser

From: Thorsten Ottosen (thorsten.ottosen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-04-29 04:49:27

Daniel Walker wrote:
> 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.

Maybe what is needed here is two functions:

read_simple_xml(...);
read_complex_xml(...);

-Thorsten