----- Message from Steve Hanson <smh@uk.ibm.com> on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:24:59 +0000 ----- To be discussed on next DFDL WG call. As a result of action 136, the spec errata document currently says: 3.3. Section 12.3. Clarify that when property is lengthKind 'explicit', 'implicit', 'prefixed' or 'pattern', it means that delimiter scanning is turned off and in-scope delimiters are not looked for within or between elements. Consequently remove the last paragraph of section 5.2.2 starting "It is a processing error when a fixed-length string is found to have a number of characters not equal to the fixed number". It has been pointed out that for a complex element with lengthKind 'implicit', turning off in-scope delimiters is not a consistent behaviour. Even though implicit means that the length is defined by the child content, this is still subject to constraints imposed by the parent. Further, as lengthKind 'implicit' is the implied lengthKind for local sequences and choices, it should be possible to wrap such a sequence or choice in an element with lengthKind 'implicit' and no framing, and experience no behaviour change in parsing other than the addition to the infoset of the element. The ability to selectively switch off in-scope delimiters is something that could be useful for both 'implicit' and 'delimited' lengthKinds, and if so could be added post 1.0 as a separate control. The proposal is to change errata 3.3 to read: 3.3. Section 12.3. Clarify that when property lengthKind is 'explicit', 'prefixed' or 'pattern', then delimiter scanning is turned off and in-scope delimiters are not looked for within or between elements. Clarify that when property lengthKind is 'implicit' and type is simple, then delimiter scanning is turned off and in-scope delimiters are not looked for within or between elements. Clarify that when property lengthKind is 'implicit' and type is complex, then delimiter scanning is not turned off and in-scope delimiters are looked for. Consequently remove the last paragraph of section 5.2.2 starting "It is a processing error when a fixed-length string is found to have a number of characters not equal to the fixed number". Regards Steve Hanson Architect, Data Format Description Language (DFDL) Co-Chair, OGF DFDL Working Group IBM SWG, Hursley, UK smh@uk.ibm.com tel:+44-1962-815848 ________________________________ Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU