Re: XML APIs

Remember, Steve, ONLY Level 1 of the DOM spec has been released, and
everyone admits that there were shortcuts and simplifications made in order
to get it out the door quickly. The fact that the DTD support is incomplete
is a worse problem, for XML users, than NodeList's plusses and/or minuses.

Also remember that a spec is going to have compromises. The final result
may not be what any one of us would have designed by ourselves, but that
isn't the proper test. The real question is whether it's something we can
live with.

Which may mean that yes, there are features that individual programmers
_are_ going to simply ignore, or that individual developers put varying
degrees of optimization into depending on their target audience. (Remember,
there's nothing in the spec that insists every implementation of NodeList
be fast -- only that it eventually yield the expected results. If you
really believe your users won't want it, don't put too much work into it.)

I can live with DOM Level 1. I may not use all its features; I may have to
wrap other code around it, or add a few hooks specific to my applications.
But as a basic starting point, it really isn't that bad.

And I expect Level 2 to be an improvement. I for one _am_ hoping that
iterators will reappear therein.

Meanwhile as you suggested, you can write your own iterators or experiment
with an extended DOM that implements them... and cut over if/when an
official version appears.

______________________________________
Joe Kesselman  / IBM Research
Unless stated otherwise, all opinions are solely those of the author.

Received on Monday, 2 November 1998 16:55:08 UTC