Re: Default entities and AT&T

Goran Oberg (goggi@zafir.dc.luth.se)
Mon, 24 Jul 95 04:39:23 EDT

Jonsm@aol.com wrote:
> This is when I discovered the concept of default entity:
> <!ENTITY #DEFAULT "Warning: The entity is not defined!">
> If this declaration is not present then the default default entity is n=
ull.
> Upon parsing AT&T turns into 'ATWarning: The entity is not defined!' or=
just
> 'AT'.
> =

> The question is: should I change the behavior of the default entity and=
make
> it return &T for the unknown entity? If so, the HTML spec should note t=
his
> behavior is a deviation from standard SGML. Conversely, a browser that
> returns &T would be non-conformat to the HTML2 spec since HTML is a SGM=
L
> application.

Couldn't it be considered an acceptable form of graceful recovery if a br=
owser
treated the entity prefix "&" as "&amp;" if it fails to recognize to foll=
owing
characters as an entity reference?

Or to be able to switch between warnings on or off?

I think either way is a kind of best effort that's better than just ignor=
ing
any unknown entity-references.

Wkr

/G

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