RE: DOCBOOK-APPS: Interpreting XML Standard's "productions"

[Jeff Beal <jeff.beal@ansys.com>]

These productions are in the Extended Backus-Naur Format (EBNF -- I think
the F stands for 'Format' anyway)  It's a common method for expressing
formal languages.  I don't know of a complete reference to EBNF diagrams,
but a google search should reveal many such references.  As for the CData
production, the '-' operator is basically read as "except for" and '::=' is
basically "is defined to be", so "CData is defined to be any string of 0 or
more Char except for a string consisting of 0 or more Char followed by ']]>'
followed by 0 or more Char".

I hope that helps,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Zenaan Harkness [mailto:zen@getsystems.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 4:35 PM
To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: DOCBOOK-APPS: Interpreting XML Standard's "productions"


The XML standard (as per w3c website), has "productions" such as the
following:

[20]    CData    ::=    (Char* - (Char* ']]>' Char*))

and I would like to understand - or if someone knows a reference that
describes - how these "productions" are defined. Mostly they kind of
make sense - some are even obvious. But as an example, the one above I
know means "CData can contain any characters except for the sequence
']]>' (not counting single quotes)". But why does the above production
mean this?

TIA
Zen

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