XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Bill de hÓra <bill AT dehora.net>]

Wolfgang Hoschek wrote:
> Just my 5 cents on the namespace and hasChildren issues:
>
> One xom design principle is to avoid convenience methods, thereby making 
> it easier to understand and learn in overall.
>
> IMHO all those methods for no-namespace scenarios (as well as the 
> trivial hasChildren()) are just convenience clutter and hence unnessecary.

I consider namespace scenarios convenience clutter for the most 
part. But then again, with this line of thought, most OO methods are 
convenience clutter including getChildCount (why not just compute 
the count?).



> If the javadoc would make it clear that null or "" as URI are intended 
> for the no-namespace scenario, then to me it is not a burden at all to 
> write
>     new Element("xyz", null)
> instead of
>     new Element("xyz");

For me it is simply poor API design to pass null (there's one 
exception in Java where I've seen it make sense; Javaspaces). In the 
abiove case passing should result in an IllegalArgumentException! 
Plus, I have no interest in catering to soemthing whem I'm not using 
it.

The get-out for the namespace pov, would be if XOM was an API for 
processing XML+Namespaces - I don't think that's the case, but if it 
is, then you'd have a point.

cheers,
Bill de hÓra