Re: Output a new line after the XML declaration using indent="yes"

Jörg Hohwiller wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> 
> Brian Minchau wrote:
>> Hi Stanimir.
>>
>> The Xalan
>> serializer doesn't know about whether the serialized XML will
>> be used in the the future as an external general parsed
>> entity and included in yet another XML file.
>>
>> It is possible that the XML will be included next to a text node that
>> is not all whitespace and the extra whitespace that we inject after the
>> XML header would be included next to non-whitespace
>> text and become part of that text node, modifying it.
>>
>> Extra whitespace added for indentation is done in ignorable locations,
>> but this particular one (just after the header) might not be ignored.
>>
>> Added indentation or extra whitespace before the document element
>> is not always correct, so Xalan doesn't do it.
>>
>> There is no Xalan specific option to control this behavior.
>>
>> - Brian
>>
> 
> 1. Could you please give an example or a link to the
> XML-specification to point out why a newline after
> XML-declation or at the end of the file should make the 
> XML illegal. I am NOT talking about your problems
> to implement this properly, but why
> <?xml ....?>^n
> <root>...</root>^n
> should be illegal!?!?
Brian didn't say it would make the result "illegal."  He simply said 
that it would modify the content of the result inappropriately.  The 
processor generates a external general parsed entity, and a newline 
between the XML declaration would introduce whitespace into the content 
of the entity.

> 
> 2. Having a newline after XML-declaration as well
> as at the end of the file is a common need that
> JAXP users have. I can NOT accept your point
> saying that this is generally NOT supported because
> it could cause some trouble you may have implementing this.
I find the tone of your post to be offensive.  No one on this list owes 
you anything in particular, and I suggest you be more polite in future 
posts.

> This has a large impact after everybody has to eat this
> when just using a plain JDK. It is a lot worse if people
> start adding newlines manually to OutputStream,
> because this will cause real trouble with encodings, especially
> if the encoding is NOT 8-bit-wise (e.g. UTF-16) and a newlines
> get broken because hackers of such workaround do NOT think
> of such problems.
Any XML parser that requires a newline between the XML declaration and 
the root element, or after the root element, is non-conforming and 
should be fixed.

> 
> Please provide a solution here.
You can always post-process the document and add the new line characters.

Dave