XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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

Luca Passani wrote:

> I actually think you did not. I have given you a great use case of why 
> serialization should be supported: platforms try to do it no matter if 
> you want it or not. So, XOM should allow for that.

XOM gives people what they need, sometimes even if they want something else.

> I agree that XML is in itself a serialization format, but to me the 
> sensible choice is to let developers decide for themselves, rather than 
> forcing them to live with restrictions.

You might wish to read the design principles. In particular, I think 
this fragment explains my philosophy:

    One of the jobs of the expert or experts who design the API is to 
know better
    than the client programmers what they should be doing.
    It is the API’s task to lead the client programmers in the right 
direction by making
    the right path easy and the wrong path difficult to impossible.
    At the extreme, it is the job of the expert  to tell the client 
programmers
    that they really don’t want to do what they think they want to do,
    that they should do something else instead.

http://www.xom.nu/designprinciples.xhtml#d0e161

> ....mmm.... I am perplexed here.There seems to be a moralistic tone in 
> your approach to this issue...are you born and raised catholic?

Maybe that's it. Call it the strict father model of API design. :-)

--
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