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List:       xml-dev
Subject:    Re: [xml-dev] An element that contains itself
From:       Michael Kay <mike () saxonica ! com>
Date:       2014-08-03 20:01:20
Message-ID: AF12F797-FBD8-4B65-BA42-D86C76708625 () saxonica ! com
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> 
> This ENTITY declaration:
> 
> <!ENTITY Set "&A; &B; &Set;">
> 
> says that a Set is an element of itself.

I think you've made a fundamental error here: because you've called your entity \
"Set", you're imagining that it is a set. But that's not the case. The entity is \
merely a character string. What you have actually defined here is a character string \
that contains itself as a substring. To handle this we have to cope with infinite \
character strings, which gives us practical programming problems, but doesn't lead to \
any mathematical paradoxes. The analogy with Russell's paradox is a false one, I \
think.
> 

Michael Kay
Saxonica


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