xml-dev - RE: finalising org.sax.xml.Parser

[Gavin McKenzie <gmckenzi@JetForm.com>]

David,

While PUBLIC may not be going anywhere fast, I'd prefer that the parse()
call-level support for it be left in SAX.  I intend to make ad-hoc use
of it internally (rolling my own catalogs and such).

I support your other proposed additions to the interface.

Gavin.

>-----Original Message-----
>From:	David Megginson [SMTP:ak117@freenet.carleton.ca]
>Sent:	Sunday, February 22, 1998 10:13 PM
>To:	xml-dev Mailing List
>Subject:	SAX: finalising org.sax.xml.Parser
>
>It's time to finalise SAX before there is such a big code base that we
>can no longer make changes.  (Thanks, by the way, to James Clark,
>DataChannel, and IBM for including native SAX support in their XML
>parsers).  During this phase, I'd like to make the _minimum_ changes
>necessary SAX to define a consistent and simple common functionality
>for XML parsers.
>
>Let's start with the Parser interface.  I'll use Java syntax because,
>while I can read IDL, I don't trust myself to write it:
>
>
>[current interface]
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  package org.xml.sax;
>
>  public interface Parser {
>
>   public void setEntityHandler (EntityHandler handler);
>   public void setDocumentHandler (DocumentHandler handler);
>   public void setErrorHandler (ErrorHandler handler);
>
>   public void parse (String publicID, String systemID)
>     throws java.lang.Exception;
>
>  }
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>After considering the various discussions over the past few weeks, I
>propose that we make the following changes:
>
>1) Add a parse() method that accepts a stream.
>
>2) Add a parse() method that accepts a character buffer.
>
>3) Remove public ID from the current parse() method (I don't think
>   public IDs are going anywhere fast in XML).
>
>With these changes, the interface would look like this in Java:
>
>
>[proposed changes]
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  package org.xml.sax;
>  import java.io.InputStream;
>
>  public interface Parser {
>
>   public void setEntityHandler (EntityHandler handler);
>   public void setDocumentHandler (DocumentHandler handler);
>   public void setErrorHandler (ErrorHandler handler);
>
>   public void parse (String uri)
>     throws java.lang.Exception;
>   public void parse (InputStream is, String baseURI)
>     throws java.lang.Exception;
>   public void parse (char ch[], int start, int length, String baseURI)
>     throws java.lang.Exception;
>
>  }
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>NOTES:
>
>a. The baseURI argument is necessary for streams and character buffers
>   in case either contains a relative URI.  You can supply a null
>   value if the document entity will not contain relative URIs.
>
>b. All programming languages initially targeted by SAX (Java, C++, C,
>   Perl) have some concept of input streams; if we come up against one
>   that doesn't, it can simply omit the relevant method.
>
>c. The start and length arguments are necessary with the character
>   buffer in case the XML document is part of a larger array.
>
>
>Does this give reasonable functionality without limiting the
>architectural approaches of parser writers?  Remember that individual
>implementations can extend this interface, but the interface
>represents the minimum common functionality that every SAX-conformant
>parser (eventually) provides.
>
>
>Thanks, and all the best,
>
>
>David
>
>-- 
>David Megginson                 ak117@freenet.carleton.ca
>Microstar Software Ltd.         dmeggins@microstar.com
>      http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dmeggins/
>
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