Re: Using the DOM with Java

Stephen R. Savitzky wrote:
> 
> DOM level 1 loses information -- it is not possible to reconstruct the
> original document from the "equivalent" DOM tree.  This is one of the
> most serious problems with it, by the way.  Another is the inability to
> represent generic SGML documents.  They're related.
>
> I am hoping that these two deficiencies will be addressed in Level 2.

No. Level 2 won't address any of these, and I doubt any level will
actually. First, SGML is clearly out of the picture. Second, the goal of
the DOM WG is to make round-triping possible but this is round-triping
as in DOM -> file -> DOM, and not file -> DOM -> file. In other words,
it should be possible to serialize a DOM tree, read it back, and get an
equivalent DOM tree.

Keep in mind that the overall goal of the W3C DOM Activity is to define
a standard API that enables people to write interoperable
scripts/plug-ins/modules/programs. You don't need to know what quotes
where used in the serialized version of the document for that.
-- 
Arnaud  Le Hors  -  W3C, DOM Activity Lead  - 
http://www.w3.org/People/Arnaud

Received on Thursday, 3 December 1998 05:46:19 UTC