On May 21, 2010, at 1:29 PM, David Duncan wrote: > On May 21, 2010, at 10:23 AM, Patrick Rutkowski wrote: > >> Any API that accepts binary data needs to give at least a hint as to what >> format the binary data should be. Saying that just it accepts "data" is >> disgusting. Period, end of argument. > > The problem is that XML specifies the text encoding inside of the XML itself. > Technically it is not possible to know the true encoding of an XML file until > you have started parsing the file, hence you cannot actually specify the > correct encoding before that point. > > The API is doing what is appropriate for the technology. An "encoding" > variant would at best be a hint as to how to start parsing before you get the > actual encoding and switch encodings, and at worst would be a complete lie as > to what encoding to use.
Ahhhhh, right; that all rings a bell now. I think I remember that line from my HTML days, way back when. Thanks :-) > >> If you want to advocate that it's perfectly fine to omit information about >> the format of binary data, then you're just a moron. I'm not saying that >> you're a moron for accidentally forgetting to document it, but if you want >> to say (as you seem to be doing) that it's OK to consciously leave it out, >> then you're just a moron. > > Insulting people is not a good way to get help on a public mailing list. When docs are bad, and I'm frustrated, I might throw out a mild pejorative; it's a reflex, sorry :-/ When someone who ought to see that I'm rightfully frustrated by bad docs tells me to change my tone, I'll start throwing out more serious pejoratives, and for that I'm not sorry. I don't like being ordered around by strangers. > -- > David Duncan > Apple DTS Animation and Printing > -Patrick _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
