xml-dev - RE: Next Round

[Michael.Kay@icl.com]

> I agree totally with you except for the fact that namespaces 
> automatically makes XML no longer dumb or necessarily low-level.  The main

> reason for this suggestion is that the alternative is for applications to
manage
> namespace processing themselves or else dump some filter on 
> top which may add major inefficiencies.  Before making any judgement on 
> this regarding MDSAX or SAXON, I would ask Michael Kay and Bill la Forge 
> what they think about a Name type and anyone else who has written some 
> higher-level API's for XML (this includes DOM implementors). 

I'd like to see a structure that is layered and modular, in which Namespace
is an
optional module layered above the basic SAX interfaces in the same way that
the Namespace
standard is an optional layer above XML 1.0. I think MDSAX is heading in
this direction.

I'm not sure about a Name type. I think I'd prefer to see a filter in which
the prefixes chosen by the document author are substituted by prefixes
chosen by the application writer, but which otherwise delivers the standard
SAX interface. Plus perhaps a helper class to parse the names.

(But we also need to think about diagnostics: the application may need
access to the original element name as written for use in error messages)

We should allow a parser to deliver the "namespace filtered events" in any
way it finds most efficient: the layering of a filter on top of a basic
parser is one way of providing the service, but not the only way. This
reminds me of a requirement omitted from David's list: the need for
interrogatives to determine the level of service offered by the parser, or
to request a particular level of service (e.g. validation, namespace
resolution, etc). 

Mike Kay

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