XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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

The recent XInclude 2nd last call working draft has led me to rethink 
my plan for getting to API freeze (alpha 1) in the near future. The 
plan is now as follows:

1. A drop in the next day or two to accumulate all the existing fixes 
and changes now in CVS. This will still support the old XInclude 
syntax.

2. A drop in the next week or so that supports the new XInclude 
syntax, and removes support for the old XInclude syntax. This mostly 
affects URIs that use XPointer fragment identifiers.

3. A pre-alpha in the next month that includes the one remaining API 
issue on the table: having NodeFactory return Nodes objects instead 
of specific classes.

4. An alpha release by the end of the year that picks either the old 
or new NodeFactory syntax, depending on performance measurements and 
user feedback.

It's also possible that the alpha will remove the XInclude package, 
and reposition those classes in the samples package, at least until 
the XInclude syntax is more cooked. The latest XInclude draft is 
quite a radical shift from the previous ones and is already seeing 
some pushback from within the W3C. I'm not confident its syntax is 
stable, and I question the wisdom of baking an unstable draft spec 
into the core XOM API. I need to think about this some more.
--

  Elliotte Rusty Harold
  elharo AT metalab.unc.edu
  Effective XML (Addison-Wesley, 2003)
  http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/effectivexml
  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0321150406/ref%3Dnosim/cafeaulaitA