[ubl-ndrsc] Proposed text for character set/encoding requirements

["Eve L. Maler" <eve.maler@sun.com>]

At the F2F, I agreed to "Propose some declarative text describing XML's 
minimum character set/character encoding expectations and saying that 
UBL has the same minimum mandatory-to-implement expectations."  Here is 
an attempt that I hope Mavis will be able to squeeze into the NDR 
document for consideration.  If there are no emailed comments by next 
week, let's plan to accept it:


According to the XML Recommendation [XML], the legal characters in XML 
character data are tab, carriage return, line feed, and the legal 
characters of Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646, as these standards are updated 
from time to time.  It further notes that "The mechanism for encoding 
character code points into bit patterns may vary from entity to entity" 
and requires all XML processors (parsers) to accept the UTF-8 and UTF-16 
encodings of 10646.  UBL has the same requirements for legal characters 
in XML instance documents and the same minimal requirements for 
character encoding support in UBL-aware software.  Trading partners may 
agree on other character encodings to use among themselves.  It is 
recommended in any case that encoding declarations be provided in the 
XML declarations of UBL documents.


	Eve
-- 
Eve Maler                                        +1 781 442 3190
Sun Microsystems                     NEW!!! cell +1 781 354 9441
Web Technologies and Standards               eve.maler @ sun.com