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A new XML parser

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: A new XML parser
• From: peastman@d...
• Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 09:01:18 -0700 (PDT)

I'm working on developing a new style of XML parser.  I've created an 
initial proof of concept implementation (in Java), and I'd be grateful for 
feedback on it.

My idea is to create a single high level, DOM-like API which is suitable 
for both streaming and in-memory parsers.  I believe this design has 
several advantages over existing parsers:

- It's much easier to use than other streaming parsers like SAX or StAX, 
since you get to work with a high level, object oriented representation of 
the XML content.  It's very similar to existing DOM APIs.  The only 
restriction is that, if you're using a streaming parser, you're required 
to access the nodes in the order they appear in the file.

- Switching from an in-memory parser to a streaming parser (or vice versa) 
is much easier than it would be with any other two parsers, because both 
of them use exactly the same API.  You can even choose which parser to use 
at runtime (based on the file size, or example, or how many passes you'll 
need to make through it).

- Many utilities can be written once, then used with either parser.

You can find a document giving more details on the motivation and design 
of the parser at

http://drizzle.stanford.edu/~peastman/pax.html

and the current implementation at

http://drizzle.stanford.edu/~peastman/pax.zip

All source code is included, and is in the public domain.  Thanks for your 
feedback!

Peter

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