XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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

While considering the possibility of allowing Nodes objects to be 
canonicalized, it occurred to me to wonder whether the items in such a 
list could be null. Apparently, they can be. This test passes:

    public void testNull() {

        Nodes nodes = new Nodes();
        nodes.append(null);
        assertEquals(null, nodes.get(0));

    }


I'm not sure I ever really thought about this before. If I had, I think 
I probably would have decided to throw a NullPointerException when 
someone tried to insert null into the list, but it's not a strong 
feeling. Now I'm equally weakly inclined to leave it alone; since it's 
possible changing this now might break someone's code.

Still, it might be nice to have an absolute guarantee that the items in 
a Nodes list or never null.

Would anyone care to argue one way or the other? i.e. that Nodes 
definitely should or definitely should not allow null values?

--
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo AT metalab.unc.edu
XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/ref=nosim