XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo AT metalab.unc.edu>]

At 10:33 AM +0200 9/19/02, Laurent Bihanic wrote:


>  - ClassLoader issues: Type-safe enumerations, such as 
> Attribute.Type, do not fit well with class loaders, even when 
> implementing equals() (see 
> http://www.javaworld.com/javatips/jw-javatip122_p.html).

This is an issue. I'm not sure what to do about it. Last night I 
reread the Bloch section on type-safe enums and he does not address 
this point at all. Certainly class loaders can be a problem in 
servlet containers, IDEs, and more. I've encountered this personally.

Here's one possibility: I add an equals() method to the 
Atrribute.Type class that can be used if client code is likely to be 
in a multi-loader environment. That would make the implementation 
more complex. I don't want to go to a straight int enum because 
type-safety is important to me. Thoughts?
--

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo AT metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
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|          XML in a  Nutshell, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly, 2002)          |
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