RE: Arbitrary Data Ptr Attribute For Node?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-dom-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:www-dom-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of
> Michael B. Allen
> Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 4:47 AM
> To: www-dom@w3.org
> Subject: Arbitrary Data Ptr Attribute For Node?
> 
> 
> In practice shouldn't Node have a void */Object attribute on which to
> hang user data? I'm writing an ncurses, DOM, MVC thingy and in order
> to communicate keystrokes from the controller to the form components
> in the view through the DOM model it's obvious that a data pointer is
> necessary. Or did I miss something?

This is a very timely subject!  The working group will meet next week, and
this is on the agenda.  I personally agree that we need a standard interface
to attach a pointer / reference to arbitrary data to a DOM node.  The
working group proposed a DOMKey mechanism to make it easy for applications
to maintain an external mapping between DOM nodes and arbitrary data, but
this has proved unworkable.  

I believe the main objection to an arbitrary data pointer is that it would
be difficult to guarantee that a DOM implementation would "do the right
thing" when a node is cloned, destroyed, etc.  Anyway, anyone wanting this
feature in Level 3 should make their strongest case for it immediately!