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175 lines
6.3 KiB
175 lines
6.3 KiB
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>Mini-XML Programmers Manual, Version 2.7</TITLE>
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<META NAME="author" CONTENT="Michael R. Sweet">
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<META NAME="copyright" CONTENT="Copyright 2003-2011">
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<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=iso-iso-8859-1">
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<LINK REL="Start" HREF="index.html">
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<LINK REL="Contents" HREF="index.html">
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<LINK REL="Next" HREF="install.html">
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<STYLE TYPE="text/css"><!--
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BODY { font-family: sans-serif }
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H1 { font-family: sans-serif }
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H2 { font-family: sans-serif }
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H3 { font-family: sans-serif }
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H4 { font-family: sans-serif }
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H5 { font-family: sans-serif }
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H6 { font-family: sans-serif }
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SUB { font-size: smaller }
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SUP { font-size: smaller }
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PRE { font-family: monospace }
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A { text-decoration: none }
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--></STYLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="index.html">Contents</A>
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<A HREF="install.html">Next</A>
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<HR NOSHADE>
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<H1 align="right"><A name="INTRO"><IMG align="right" alt="0" height="100"
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hspace="10" src="0.gif" width="100"></A>Introduction</H1>
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<P>This programmers manual describes Mini-XML version 2.7, a small XML
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parsing library that you can use to read and write XML data files in
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your C and C++ applications.</P>
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<P>Mini-XML was initially developed for the <A href="http://gutenprint.sf.net/">
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Gutenprint</A> project to replace the rather large and unwieldy <TT>
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libxml2</TT> library with something substantially smaller and
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easier-to-use. It all began one morning in June of 2003 when Robert
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posted the following sentence to the developer's list:</P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>It's bad enough that we require libxml2, but rolling our
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own XML parser is a bit more than we can handle.</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>I then replied with:</P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>Given the limited scope of what you use in XML, it
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should be trivial to code a mini-XML API in a few hundred lines of
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code.</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>I took my own challenge and coded furiously for two days to produced
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the initial public release of Mini-XML, total lines of code: 696.
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Robert promptly integrated Mini-XML into Gutenprint and removed
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libxml2.</P>
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<P>Thanks to lots of feedback and support from various developers,
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Mini-XML has evolved since then to provide a more complete XML
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implementation and now stands at a whopping 3,965 lines of code,
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compared to 103,893 lines of code for libxml2 version 2.6.9.</P>
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<P>Aside from Gutenprint, Mini-XML is used for the following
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projects/software applications:</P>
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<UL>
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<LI><A href="http://www.cups.org/">CUPS</A></LI>
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<LI><A href="http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net">ZynAddSubFX</A></LI>
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</UL>
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<P>Please email me (mxml @ easysw . com) if you would like your project
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added or removed from this list, or if you have any comments/quotes you
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would like me to publish about your experiences with Mini-XML.</P>
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<!-- NEED 1in -->
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<H2><A NAME="1_1">Organization of This Document</A></H2>
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<P>This manual is organized into the following chapters and appendices:</P>
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<UL>
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<LI>Chapter 1, "<A href="install.html#INSTALL">Building, Installing, and
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Packaging Mini-XML</A>", provides compilation, installation, and
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packaging instructions for Mini-XML.</LI>
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<LI>Chapter 2, "<A href="basics.html#BASICS">Getting Started with
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Mini-XML</A>", shows how to use the Mini-XML library in your programs.</LI>
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<LI>Chapter 3, "<A href="advanced.html#ADVANCED">More Mini-XML
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Programming Techniques</A>", shows additional ways to use the Mini-XML
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library.</LI>
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<LI>Chapter 4, "<A href="mxmldoc.html#MXMLDOC">Using the mxmldoc Utility</A>
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", describes how to use the <TT>mxmldoc(1)</TT> program to generate
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software documentation.</LI>
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<LI>Appendix A, "<A href="license.html#LICENSE">Mini-XML License</A>",
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provides the terms and conditions for using and distributing Mini-XML.</LI>
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<LI>Appendix B, "<A href="relnotes.html#RELNOTES">Release Notes</A>",
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lists the changes in each release of Mini-XML.</LI>
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<LI>Appendix C, "<A href="reference.html#REFERENCE">Library Reference</A>
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", contains a complete reference for Mini-XML, generated by <TT>mxmldoc</TT>
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.</LI>
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<LI>Appendix D, "<A href="schema.html#SCHEMA">XML Schema</A>", shows the
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XML schema used for the XML files produced by <TT>mxmldoc</TT>.</LI>
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</UL>
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<!-- NEED 10 -->
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<H2><A NAME="1_2">Notation Conventions</A></H2>
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<P>Various font and syntax conventions are used in this guide. Examples
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and their meanings and uses are explained below:</P>
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<DL>
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<DT><CODE>mxmldoc</CODE>
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<BR> <CODE>mxmldoc(1)</CODE></DT>
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<DD>The names of commands; the first mention of a command or function in
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a chapter is followed by a manual page section number.
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT><VAR>/var</VAR>
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<BR><VAR> /etc/hosts</VAR></DT>
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<DD>File and directory names.
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT><TT>Request ID is Printer-123</TT></DT>
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<DD>Screen output.
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT><KBD>lp -d printer filename ENTER</KBD></DT>
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<DD>Literal user input; special keys like <KBD>ENTER</KBD> are in ALL
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CAPS.
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT>12.3</DT>
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<DD>Numbers in the text are written using the period (.) to indicate the
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decimal point.
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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</DL>
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<!-- NEED 10 -->
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<H2><A NAME="1_3">Abbreviations</A></H2>
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<P>The following abbreviations are used throughout this manual:</P>
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<DL>
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<DT>Gb</DT>
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<DD>Gigabytes, or 1073741824 bytes
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT>kb</DT>
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<DD>Kilobytes, or 1024 bytes
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT>Mb</DT>
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<DD>Megabytes, or 1048576 bytes
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT>UTF-8, UTF-16</DT>
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<DD>Unicode Transformation Format, 8-bit or 16-bit
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT>W3C</DT>
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<DD>World Wide Web Consortium
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT>XML</DT>
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<DD>Extensible Markup Language
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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</DL>
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<!-- NEED 12 -->
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<H2><A NAME="1_4">Other References</A></H2>
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<DL>
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<DT>The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0, Addison-Wesley, ISBN
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0-321-18578-1</DT>
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<DD>The definition of the Unicode character set which is used for XML.
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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<DT><A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/">Extensible
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Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Third Edition)</A></DT>
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<DD>The XML specification from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
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<BR>
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<BR></DD>
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</DL>
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<!-- NEED 6 -->
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<H2><A NAME="1_5">Legal Stuff</A></H2>
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<P>The Mini-XML library is copyright 2003-2011 by Michael Sweet. License
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terms are described in <A href="license.html#LICENSE">Appendix A -
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Mini-XML License</A>.</P>
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<HR NOSHADE>
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<A HREF="index.html">Contents</A>
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<A HREF="install.html">Next</A>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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