I'm working on a XML/web
services related project. It's interesting to note that all
my XML processing needs can be met by xpath. xpath also is much simpler
to program than DOM/SAX. This makes me wondering if one can directly
build xpath engine and bypass the parsing step.
Before going down the route, I'd like to
hear your expert's view on this subject. If I just implement xpath
directly to access XML files, without a parser layer, would I run into
problems later? Even though I don't see a need for DOM/SAX now,
I'm afraid that in the future there my be something that require them. It
would be great if you can provide me a common case of where xpath is
not sufficient and a parser is needed.
I think the same thought has been applied
by Java binding people. In my original view of XML processing, the flow goes
like:
XML file --> parsing
--> binding or accessing
Java binding people skiped the parsing
step. Is it a good idea for accessing people to also skip the parsing
step?
A bolder hypothesis (with
limited knowledge) is: one can always find a shortcut to bypass
parsing, to serve higher level application's needs. If it's true then DOM/SAX
will gradually disappear from real products, because of their respective
shortcomings. xpath seems to be a better step stone for lots of other
processing to base on.
Thanks,
Hui
