XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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

At 4:52 PM +0100 1/15/03, Laurent Bihanic wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was looking at the XOM 1.0d8 API and found two things that may be 
> worth changing:
>
> - setData vs. getValue: Comment, Text and ProcessingInstruction all 
> require to use setData to modify the node data and getValue to 
> retrieve this same value. On the other hand, Attribute provides 
> setValue and getValue. I think the API would be more intuitive if 
> Comment, Text and ProcessingInstruction used setValue instead of 
> setData.


I've thought that myself, though I hadn't noticed Comment and Text, 
only ProcessingInstruction. I chose getValue() because that has an 
XPath definition, and setData because that has an XML 1.0 definition. 
Every node has a value that can be gotten but not every node has a 
value that can be set. Thus the difference, but you're right. This is 
needlessly divergent. It would be nice to improve this. What do other 
people think?

> - Likewise, many classes offer protected checkXxx methods (e.g. 
> checkRoot, checkRemove, checkTarget, checkData) but Comment and Text 
> only have check(). For consistency, it would be nice to rename them 
> checkData (or checkValue), even if these classes only have one check 
> method (but Document and Attributes are in the same case).

Sounds good. Any objections from anyone?

Also, one final asymmetry: Element has declareNamespace and 
removeNamespaceDeclaration. Should this be declareNamespace and 
undeclareNamespace? or addNamespaceDeclaration and 
removeNamesapceDeclaration?

The big concern for the declare and undeclare methods is what happens 
when you attempt to declare or undeclare the namespace of that 
element or one of its attributes? Should I throw an exception? no-op? 
Or should I allow namespace declarations in the list of additional 
namespaces which duplicate the namespaces of the element and its 
attributes, in case the URI or prefix of the element or attribute is 
later changed?
--

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo AT metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|           Processing XML with Java (Addison-Wesley, 2002)          |
|              http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xmljava             |
| http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0201771861/cafeaulaitA  |
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