Hi Mike

I think the test case can be explained by the fact that IBM DFDL does not yet support dfdl:lenghKind = 'endOfParent', hence any test case would try to use 'delimited'.

I don't have an issue with saying that encountering dfdl:lengthKind 'delimited' while parsing but having no delimiters in scope, is an SDE. It's almost certainly an indication the model is wrong.

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

From: Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com>
To: dfdl-wg@ogf.org
Date: 21/06/2012 13:20
Subject: [DFDL-WG] test case length_delimited_12_03
Sent by: dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org

IBM published a set of test cases for DFDL. One of them is length_delimited_12_03.

I want to discuss whether this is in fact the behavior we want for DFDL.

In this example, there is data "abcde", and the default format is lengthKind="delimited", but no delimiters are defined anywhere.

<xs:element name="myStringSeq2" dfdl:lengthKind="explicit" dfdl:length="5">

<xs:complexType>

<xs:sequence dfdl:initiatedContent="no" dfdl:separatorPosition="infix"

dfdl:sequenceKind="ordered" dfdl:separator="" >

<xs:element name="Test1" type="xs:string">

</xs:element>

</xs:sequence>

</xs:complexType>

</xs:element>

The only way for this to parse is for the inner element Test1 to be delimited by the end-of-data coming from the explicit surrounding box created by the myStringSeq2.

I thought this should be a SDE because no delimiter is defined anywhere. I see that it can work, if we adopt a policy that delimited, but with no delimiters, means delimited by end-of-available-data.

But, I thought that is what lengthKind="endOfData" is for.

Can anyone comment as to why the lengthKind="delimited" but with no delimiter strings defined should NOT be an SDE?
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