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:

>  - CDATA handling: There are cases where I need a tool to edit XML 
> documents that are also edited manually. If a user used a CDATA 
> section, I'd probably like to output the document with a CDATA 
> section. Wouldn't Text.setCDATA(boolean) / isCDATA()  be acceptable?

This one isn't going to happen. Implementation wise, it would rule 
out merging text nodes, something I'm still seriously considering. 
Much more importantly, it violates two XOM design principles:

1. Don't represent syntax sugar
2. Don't let the client do bad things.

The application of the first principle is obvious. The application of 
the second is based on my observation that lots of client code out 
there in the world today  treats CDATA sections as some kind of 
special purpose container with structural significance rather than as 
just syntax sugar. I deliberately chose not to make this possible in 
XOM. I want to cause cognitive dissonance for developers using CDATA 
sections in this fashion so that they will reevaluate their approach 
and come to a better understanding of how they should and should not 
use CDATA.

--

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| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo AT metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
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