RE: [xml-dev] Why is Encoding Metadata (e.g. encoding="UTF-8) putInside the XML Document?

• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@...>
• To: "'Dave Pawson'" <davep@...>,"'xml-dev'" <xml-dev@...>
• Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:45:40 +0100

> What might it look like when solved? 

Well, as a minimum, a decent operating system would allow you to specify an
encoding when a file is created, and it would then insist that people
reading and writing that file use a character (rather than byte) oriented
API which ensures that the encoding and decoding are done correctly.

I'd go further than that, and say that a decent operating system would allow
you to declare a file to be XML and would then ensure that it actually is
XML.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/