>
> The very real problem with re-use is that many commercial developers
> cannot take the risk associated with using public domain code. In
> general, when code is placed in the public domain or made 'freely'
> usable, no-one actually assumes responsiblity for certification that
> there are no encumberances on the code. That leaves anyone who
> contaminates their development process by use of such code exposed
> if there is a subsequent claim against the code.
Yes this point is crucial. In the case of YASP for instance, many people
wondered why all the "IBM Confidential" mentions all over the source code
files were not erased prior to releasing the parser in the public domain.
> >From a technical perspective, the organization re-using code for
> commercial product purposes subsumes responsiblity for insuring that
> the code correctly parses HTML/SGML and therefore still needs to
> understand the lexical requirements.
>From the technical point of view, YASP is a C library or DLL to which
you can dynamically link. So in fact you do not have to include the
DLL in your commercial package and just ask the customers to get the
library. ObjectSGML is the same thing and the same goes for the SP
parser (maybe James can tell us more about it).
For the YASP parser again, it has passed all the conformance test suites
available with success. Yes you do not have to take my word for it, I
know. The NIST is conducting a series of tests for SGML software to
know their level of conformance. If you want to test an SGML parser
yourself, one of the best test suites (if not the best) available is
the Exoterica test suite which is available on a CD ROM. I think they
have a few thousand SGML documents in there where all the nastiest SGML
constructs are in use.
Anyway the most intricate problem is the first one you raised.
Regards,
Christophe
-- Christophe Espert - E-mail: espert@cln46fw.der.edf.fr ======================================================================== EDF - DER 1, Avenue du General de Gaulle 92141 Clamart CEDEX - FRANCE Tel: 33.1.47.65.43.21 ext. 6635 Fax: 33.1.47.65.50.07 ISO 8879:1986 - SGML | ISO/IEC 10744:1992 - HyTime | ISO/DIS 10179 DSSSL