xmlhack: XML 1.1 reaches Candidate Recommendation

The W3C has released a Candidate Recommendation of XML 1.1, with changes to control-character and Unicode normalization handling.

The most obvious change to the specification is that while it now permits the inclusion of control characters in the C0 and C1 areas of Unicode (with the exception of #x00, NULL), it requires that they be escaped as character references (with the exception of #x85, NEL).

The discussion of Unicode normalization makes it effectively optional for processors:

"All XML parsed entities (including document entities) should be fully normalized as per the definition of [Charmod] supplemented by the following definitions of relevant constructs for XML...However, a document is still well-formed even if it is not fully normalized. XML processors should provide a user option to verify that the document being processed is in fully normalized form, and report to the application whether it is or not. The option to not verify should be chosen only when the input text is certified, as defined by [Charmod]."

The Candidate Recommendation phase ends 14 February 2003. Comments should be sent to www-xml-blueberry-comments@w3.org.