[Python-Dev] Encoding of code in XML

[David Ascher]

Lots of projects embed scripting & other code in XML, typically as CDATA
elements.  For example, XBL in Mozilla.  As far as I know, no one ever
bothers to define how one should _encode_ code in a CDATA segment, and it
appears that at least in the Mozilla world the 'encoding' used is 'cut &
paste', and it's the XBL author's responsibility to make sure that ]]> is
nowhere in the JavaScript code.

That seems suboptimal to me, and likely to lead to disasters down the line.

The only clean solution I can think of is to define a standard
encoding/decoding process for storing program code (which may very well
contain occurences of ]]> in CDATA, which effectively hides that triplet
from the parser.

While I'm dreaming, it would be nice if all of the relevant language
communities (JS, Python, Perl, etc.) could agree on what that encoding is.
I'd love to hear of a recommendation on the topic by the XML folks, but I
haven't been able to find any such document.

Any thoughts?

--david ascher