[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: (more) extensible SAX

• From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>
• To: "xml-dev@l..." <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 12:22:16 -0500

At 4:37 AM +0100 12/5/00, Eric van der Vlist wrote:

>Instead of:
>
>startElement(java.lang.String namespaceURI,
>	java.lang.String localName,
>	java.lang.String qName,
>	Attributes atts)
>	throws SAXException
>
>I would have far preferred to have:
>
>startElement(org.xml.sax.StartElement start)
>         throws SAXException
>

I have a real problem with this whole idea. I think it would make the 
API significantly less obvious and harder to learn. The current API 
is (mostly) very straight-forward. There are a strictly limited 
number of classes and interfaces you have to learn before doing real 
work, basically just ContentHandler and XMLReader.  I'm opposed to 
cluttering the API with a lot of extra required classes like 
startElement.

I am also not convinced by the cases you cite where you think the API 
will have to change in the future. For instance, I don't see why 
xml:base or xml:lang will require any method signatures to change. 
Both can be handled very straightforwardly now by those limited 
number of programs that need to handle them, simply by storing a 
stack of the current bases or languages encountered as startElement() 
and endElement() are called.
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@m... | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|                  The XML Bible (IDG Books, 1999)                   |
|              http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/books/bible/               |
|   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764532367/cafeaulaitA/   |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
|  Read Cafe au Lait for Java News:  http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/ |
|  Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/     |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: (more) extensible SAX
    • From: Eric van der Vlist <vdv@d...>

• References:
  • (more) extensible SAX
    • From: Eric van der Vlist <vdv@d...>

• Prev by Date: XML to WML translation
• Next by Date: Re: (more) extensible SAX
• Previous by thread: Re: (more) extensible SAX
• Next by thread: Re: (more) extensible SAX
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread