[DFDL-WG] bits and alignment and delimiters

[Mike Beckerle]

Are delimiters implicitly text in the sense of being aligned to an 8-bit
boundary?

E.g., if I have <element name="threeBits" type="xs:byte"
dfdl:alignmentUnits="bits" dfdl:alignment="1" dfdl:lengthUnits="bits"
dfdl:length="{3}" dfdl:terminator="%#x55;"/>

Does that terminator byte of 0x55 begin at bit 4, immediately after the
last bit of the content region, or does it implicitly move up to bit 8?

I know the answer if instead of a terminator, the threeBits had no
terminator but was followed by an element of type xs:string. Text always
has byte alignment (at least). But what about
initiators/terminators/separators which are allowed in binary data.

I know I really want the answer here to be that we treat delimiters as text
always, so byte alignment (minimum). But I don't think the spec discusses
the possibility of non-byte alignment of delimiters.

...mikeb

-- 
Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL WG Co-Chair
Tel:  781-330-0412
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