MinML is Evil

• Key: XMLRPC-60
• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Priority: Critical
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: elharo
• Component/s: Source
• Affects Version/s: 2.0

Description

MinML is not an XML parser, It does not correctly implement the XML specification in a variety of ways. It should not be bundled and should not be used. Given that Java 1.4 now includes a much more conformant parser (and Java 1.5 includes an even better one) there's no excuse for distributing a non-conformant parser like MinML. XML-RPC is XML, and nothing less than a real XML parser can handle it correctly.

Comments

[Danny Angus]

This is a very vague observation, with a very strongly worded proposal for its resolution.
Might I suggest that the way to procede is to describe some concrete instances of MinML's failure in the role, and if possible provide some simple reproducable test cases to support your opinion.

Might I also point out: "http://ws.apache.org/xmlrpc/parser.html" which describes how to use any other parser.

I would respectfully suggest this issue be downgraded to "Minor" "Wish" and resolve by changing the _default_ parser to the J2SE default.

[elharo]

A quick perusal of the MinML web page shows that it advertises non-conformance to XML. In particular it fails to handle the internal DTD subset as required by the XML specification. I don't doubt that I could find other non-conformances if I actually started parsing documents with it.

[Jochen Wiedmann]

First of all, let me say, that I am not so keen with MinML either and share your opinion, that a modern XML parser and
preferrably the JRE's parser should be default.

However, as already pointed out, this can easily be achieved and you are by no means forced to use MinML. Besides, take a look at

http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/ws-xmlrpc/?only_with_tag=b20050512_streaming

and you'll note, that the use of SAX2 is already implemented in a branch.

I'd be okay with an enhancement which defaults to a SAX2-compliant parser when available, but this isn't always the case. MinML is a good fallback for those situations (e.g. applets).