Best way to import XML Files

[Fairlight]

Four score and seven years--eh, screw that!
At about Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 09:00:06PM -0400,
Kenneth Brody blabbed on about:
> Fairlight wrote:
> > 
> > >From inside the gravity well of a singularity, George Simon shouted:
> > > This is basically the same way I did it.
> > > I just finished writing the code and it seems to work just fine.
> > > I discovered that filePro will let you use graphic characters as field and
> > > record delimiters, so I used chr("249") which is a period in the middle of
> > > the line ( · ) as both my field and record delimiters.
> > 
> > I'm not sure how wise that is.  I'm no expert on XML, but since there's
> > nothing you can put in a DTD that allows for those extra characters, and
> > since it's not in a comment, it seems like it -should- result in a parser
> > saying it's not a well-structured file.
> [...]
> > It just doesn't -seem- like a good idea to have those extra non-XML
> > character out there, uncommented.  I'm not sure every parser will be so
> > friendly about it.  Whitespace is irrelevant, but that's -not- whitespace.
> > 
> > Would someone with more experience with XML and various parsers care to
> > comment on the wiseness of the cited methodology?
> 
> I think you missed his point...  He is _importing_ the file into filePro,
> and telling it that chr("249") is the delimiter, under the assumption
> that that particular character will _not_ appear in the file.

That point wasn't lost on me.  However, if he ever wanted to use the same
XML with any other application for any purpose, it may or may not have
issues with it.  IOW, it doesn't seem like building a portable solution,
assuming some parsers may have problems with it.

I'm not saying he need ever replace fP.  He may eventually want fP -and-
Crystal Reports (just an example) to use the same data file.  Who knows
what will happen when you do things that may or may not violate a standard?

What I'm trying to narrow down is whether it -does- violate the standard.

Anyone?  :)

mark->
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