xml-dev - Re: (more) extensible SAX

[Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>]

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@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
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|                  The XML Bible (IDG Books, 1999)                   |
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