Re: [xsl] Multiple Character Encodings in XSLT/XML

[David Carlisle <davidc@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Is is possible to have an XSLT, or for that matter any XML document
> which can have more than one character encoding?

It's possible to have a single XML document which uses multiple
encodings, but not a single file. Each separately encoded region needs
to be in a separate entity.

> If this is not supported, why not? - Any theoretical reason?
It is allowed as I say by the entity system. If it were to be allowed
to switch encodings mid-entity more things would need changing, MIME
types and HTTP headers for instance, all assume a single encoding per
entity (in the text/* types). Editor suport for switchig encodings
mid file may be there today in some editors, but certaibly not in all,
and certainly wasn't common in the early 1980's when SGML was getting
going.

With the availabliliy of utf-* encodings it's arguable that you do not
really need multiple encodings at all, in any circumstance, so certainly
not in a single file. Any editor that is capable of coping with multiple
encodings is almost certainly capable of utf-8, in which case you can use
utf-8 throughout the document.

David

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