[SCXML-80] SCXMLParser: Should the parser throw an exception on a parsing error?

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.8
• Fix Version/s: 0.9
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Ingmar Kliche
• Created: 30/Jul/08 17:33
• Updated: 03/Dec/08 20:26
• Resolved: 14/Nov/08 23:05

Description

I noticed that the SCXMLParser::DigestSrcAttributeRule() function only logs a message (and returns to continue parsing at next element) in case there is trouble in resolving the src-Attribute (i.e. to source in content from other SCXML documents). The particular use case is a wrong fraction of the src-Attribute of the <state> tag, i.e. if the state which was refered to using the url fraction does not exist in the target document.

Thus when using the parser it is not possible to know whether the parsing was actually successful. In the above given use case the parser returns a valid - but incomplete - statemachine. And this is a severe problem.

Hence, shouldn't the parsing error bubble up, e.g. using an exception?