XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[peter murray-rust <pm286 AT cam.ac.uk>]

At 12:28 24/09/2006, Elliotte Harold wrote:
> peter murray-rust wrote:

Thanks very much for the rapid reply. Knowing 
that the problem is defined helps a lot.

> > I am not clear why the element prefixes have to 
> > be hardcoded other than for serialization. The 
> > only workaround I can think of is to copy the nodes and change the prefixes.
>
> Another big reason: canonical XML and everything 
> that depends on this including XML digital signatures.
>
> Related (weaker) reason: testing
>
> There are just too many things that break when you rewrite prefixes. :-(

I'm not surprised. My current practice - which I 
thought was appropriate - was to construct CML 
elements without a prefix. Now I shall construct 
them by default as "cml:atom", etc. I have to 
hope (reasonably) that this prefix is unlikely to 
have collisions. I assume that even when there 
are prefix collisions the output is 
namespace-valid even if fairly human-unreadable...

Prefixes also have the benefit that users (who 
are not always aware of the subtleties of 
namespaces) will see that all CML elements have a 
prefix and that namespaces are mandatory.

P.


> --
> Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo AT metalab.unc.edu
> Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
> http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
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Peter Murray-Rust
Unilever Centre for Molecular Sciences Informatics
University of Cambridge,
Lensfield Road,  Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069