XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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

luca wrote:

> "Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format 
> derived from SGML"

Simple is a relative term. Compared to SGML, XML is indeed simple. 
Compared to CSV it isn't, at least in theory. In practice, XML actually 
is as simple as CSV and maybe simpler, because real-world CSV is rarely 
what people think expect it to be. That's another permathread.


> now, I am trying to do something that is achieveble with 5 lines
> of Perl code totally (a guru can probably do it from the command line)
> using regular expressions.

No, you can't. Regular expressions are insufficiently powerful to handle 
XML. Details in Item 29 of Effective XML (and if anyone asks nicely, I 
may put that one online too).


> Seen another way, I am trying a use a simple API to do something simple
> with a tiny file which uses a simple text format. Yet, it doesn't work.
>
> Where is the disconnect?

You're discovering that XML is not as simple as you were led to believe. 
If you try to use regular expressions to parse this stuff, you'll likely 
find a few other areas where XML isn't as simple as you thought. XOM's 
motto is "As simple as it can be and no simpler!"


--
Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo AT metalab.unc.edu