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Bugtraq Archives: Re: XML in IE 5.0

Re: XML in IE 5.0

Subject: Re: XML in IE 5.0
From: Mike Brown (mikeHYPERREAL.ORG)
Date: Thu Jan 13 2000 - 09:12:17 CST

David Komanek wrote:
> I'm just playing with XML around and have noticed strange behavior of MS
> Internet Explorer 5.0 :
>
> - if I let the MS IE display SMALL xml-file, everything seems to be O.K.
>
> - if I let the MS IE display A BIT BIGGER xml-file, everything goes
> wrong [symptoms of a memory leak, Microsoft bad, etc]

IE 5.0 uses an XML parser written by Datachannel.com. Have you tested your
file with this parser outside of the context of IE 5.0? You can download a
standalone version of the MSXML parser from msdn.microsoft.com, and you
can get Datachannel's version from datachannel.com.

Have you tested your file with a validating parser that's actually useful,
like IBM XML4J aka Apache Xerces? The reason I ask is, you should try to
rule out the possibility that errors in your file and/or DTD might be
causing the parser in IE5 to get confused. If you find errors with XML4J,
fix them, and IE5 is then able to load your document, then you will have
to revise your diagnosis of the size of the file being the only factor.

I have not had any problems with IE 5.0 loading 2000+ line XSL files,
personally, as long as they were well-formed XML and their DTDs did not
contain errors. However I would strongly suggest not relying on the
MSXML/Datachannel parser for any serious validation. Their implementation
is not 100% conformant and the error reporting in the browser varies in a
range from moderately helpful all the way down to completely wrong or
misleading.

I also don't see what this potential bug in the parser has to do with
computer security.

This archive was generated by hypermail 2b27 : Thu Jan 13 2000 - 16:46:28 CST