XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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

It's occurred to me that we could further simplify XOM by removing the 
Attributes and Namespaces classes from the public API. Instead we would 
add the following four methods to Element:

public final Attribute getAttribute(int i)
public final int getAttributeCount()
public final String getNamespacePrefix(int i)
public final int getNamespaceDeclarationCount()

This would be a net reduction of three methods and two classes from the 
API. (We'd add four new methods to Element, remove two existing methods 
from Element, remove the three methods from Namespaces, and the two 
methods from Attributes)

Advantages (besides reduced complexity):

1. The attributes and namespaces requested would always be live

2. The API for attributes and namespace declarations is much more 
consistent with that for child nodes.

Disadvantages:

1. The Element class is two methods more complex.

2. Taking a persistent snapshot of attributes or namespaces, would 
require a little more work on the part of the client programmer. (How 
common is this use-case anyway?) At some point, I do foresee adding a 
generic NodeList class that might be able to be used for this purpose.

The more I look at this, the more I like it. Thoughts? Comments?

I'd also like to explore if it might also be possible to remove the 
Elements class. However, that's a lot trickier because the 
getChildElements() methods are more useful in practice, and because of 
the filters via name and namespace. Removing Elements might not result 
in a net reduction in complexity.

--
Elliotte