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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: DOM's javascript roots (was Re: Have JDOM / XOM
On Mar 31, 2006, at 22:58, Elliotte Harold wrote:
> Robin Berjon wrote:
>> But now I'm writing in my platform's default encoding. That might
>> have been tolerable in the 80s when the folks who came up with
>> this ridiculous API were sharpening their text-munging fu on
>> ASCII, but those benighted days are thankfully over, in no little
>> part thanks to XML's arrival.
>
> You're right. In reality I'd write something like this:
>
> Writer out = new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream
> ("file.txt"), "UTF-8");
>
> It's still one line, though a longish one. Perhaps I'd even break
> it into two lines. But I'd have to do similar things in Perl or
> Python if I wanted to handle character sets sensibly there too.
Right, so when first asked the question you bring up a given class,
then upon being reminded that that solution isn't portable you bring
in two other classes that also write stuff out, plus an extra
interface for good measure. And you still haven't included either the
local code to handle the exception, or the change to your method's
signature if you're not handling it (with the various implications
that has). I'll remind you that all we're doing here is trying to put
some characters into a file.
As I said I'm not getting into language bashing, my original question
remains: you bring someone up with the notion that they need to know
all of the above to even hope to get writing to a text file right, do
you really expect them to pause a second and think "hang on, this DOM
thing could be easier"? If that were the case wouldn't they all be
storming Santa Clara to get some decent interfaces out of the JDK?
> The real difference is that Java assumes you want to do the right
> thing with full error handling, appropriate character set support,
> and more by default. It's a language designed for professional
> applications that cross the t's and dot the i's.
Again, not my point, but if that were true picking the right encoding
for a file would be easier, not harder, than not doing it. I get to
see a lot of Java-produced XML here, and I wouldn't even want to
start to count the number of times it stops working if you throw the
producer in a "weird character" (as it is most often reported).
> Perl et al. assume you want to write quick and dirty throwaway
> hacks. It's a difference in focus. Of course, you can write
> professional apps in Perl or quick and dirty hacks in Java, but you
> work against the language when you do that. Pick the language
> that's appropriate to your task.
No, the assumptions are different. Java assumes that the dude who
wrote the interface knew what he was doing, which in the face of
experience is completely laughable. Of course, the reverse is
laughable as well but at least they have a sense of both pragmatism
and humour :)
Note however that this notion of "designer is right" tends to be more
acutely wrong when confronted with open systems such as XML or RDF,
unless you try to bound things going the XML Schema route (which
tends to fail as well).
>> open my $fileHandle, ">:utf-8", "filename.txt" or die "Error
>> opening file: $!";
>
> Perfect example. The entire app shuts down because you couldn't
> open one file. I can make a Java program shut down in one line too,
> but it's not the natural thing to do in an end user facing
> application or a reliable library.
The above does not shut down the app, it just throws a runtime
exception. It is the idiomatic equivalent to the somewhat less
idiomatic:
import java.io.*;
//...
try {
Writer out = new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream
("file.txt"), "UTF-8");
}
catch (IOException ioe) {
throw new RuntimeException("Error opening file: " + ioe.getMessage
());
}
except that by its simplicity it tends to be more inviting to do the
right thing.
--
Robin Berjon
Senior Research Scientist
Expway, http://expway.com/
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