Re^4: XML::Simple cannot parse Simple XML file

And just in case you have to process XML that you don't produce and is invalid

Terminology is important here. There is no such thing as "invalid XML". If your data doesn't follow the XML specs then it is not XML.

When presented with data that is supposed to be XML but isn't, the best action is to insist that it be replaced by something that is XML. Remember how the web was taken over by invalid HTML because browsers were too lenient? Let's not allow XML to go the same way.

--
<http://dave.org.uk>

"The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
-- Chip Salzenberg

Comment on Re^4: XML::Simple cannot parse Simple XML file

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Re^5: XML::Simple cannot parse Simple XML file by ForgotPasswordAgain (Vicar) on Jun 14, 2006 at 09:38 UTC
There is no such thing as "invalid XML". So if you make a typo that's a syntax error in Perl, it's no longer Perl? Although I understand what you're saying, I don't agree with how you said it. `"He's not a patient person." = "He's an impatient person." "This is not valid XML." = "This is invalid XML."` [download] It's like, say you define a "table" as "a thing for sitting stuff on that has four legs". Then you find another thing that you could sit stuff on, except one of the legs is missing. Wouldn't you say that it's a broken table rather than say that broken tables don't exist?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^6: XML::Simple cannot parse Simple XML file by davorg (Chancellor) on Jun 14, 2006 at 10:29 UTC
Of course you go through typos when you're developing stuff - whether it's Perl, XML or anything else. That's not the issue. The issue is people who publish documents that claim to be XML but which don't conform to the specification. And here, we're not talking about a typo. We're talking about a tag name that starts with a disallowed character - that's a pretty major problem in my opinion and people shouldn't work around it. -- <http://dave.org.uk> "The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club." -- Chip Salzenberg	[reply]