XOM API for Processing XML with Java

["O'Brien-Strain, Eamonn" <eob AT exch.hpl.hp.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elliotte Rusty Harold [mailto:elharo AT metalab.unc.edu]
[...]
> Sparta seems to make no effort to 
> make sure its data is well-formed. [...]
> It appears that any string at all can be used to set the element [tagName], 
> including strings that contain spaces, tabs, nulls, vertical tabs, 
> unmatched halves of surrogate pairs, and more.

This is true.

> Similarly, the setAttribute method isn't checking attribute 
> names or values[...]

This is true for the attribute name.  However it is OK to pass arbitrary 
characters in the attribute value: it will be encoded in the toXml() 
serializer.

> The Text class also seems to be allowing anything, well-formed or not:
[...]

Just like attribute values, it is OK to pass in arbitrary text.  The toXml() 
serializer will either encode the text or enclose it in <![CDATA[ ... ]]>
 
> XOM is fanatical about enforcing well-formedness. Sparta appears to 
> be ignoring that issue completely, and relying on the client 
> programmer to know, remember, and follow all the well-formedness 
> rules of XML.

Yes, Sparta does assume that certain preconditions are met and these should 
be documented in the JavaDoc.  Perhaps I should move some of the checks from 
the parser to the DOM creation code -- which would probably not increase the 
code size much.  But then more of the DOM methods would have to throw 
exceptions, which would be annoying.  Another approach is to "encode" bad tag 
and attribute names as correct names -- but I am a bit dubious about that.

__ 
Eamonn O'Brien-Strain 
HP Labs 
eob AT hpl.hp.com