The DOM is a pretty awkward API to both use and implement.  An API based on
Ruby-isms, such as dynamic typing and blocks for traversal, and XPath for
lookups would be much more convenient.

Cheers,
            Nat.

________________________________
Dr. Nathaniel Pryce
B13media Ltd.
40-41 Whiskin St, London, EC1R 0BP, UK
http://www.b13media.com

XP Day, London, UK. 15th December 2001. http://xpday.xpdeveloper.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tobias Reif" <tobiasreif / pinkjuice.com>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk / ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 2:56 PM
Subject: [ruby-talk:25014] Re: XML support in the standard lib; what
exactly?


> P.S.
>
> The DOM is a model to represent an XML document. The DOM API recs build
> on the DOM data model.
>
> There are other models to represent XML documents: XPath uses one that's
> different than the DOM for example.
>
> Then there's the Infoset:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-infoset-20011024/
> says:
> "* [attributes] An unordered set of attribute information items, one for
> each of the attributes (specified or defaulted from the DTD) of this
> element. Namespace declarations do not appear in this set."
>
> Other models could declare the sequence of attributes relevant, etc.
>
> IMHO, any RubyWay API should use 'The Document Object Model 's model' as
> a basis to build its' API on top. This way, it could perhaps use a DOM
> parser. Or it could adhere to the Infoset.
>
> A clear choice would be very beneficial for POLS. A varying, unstable
> mix of DOM, XPath, and Infoset data models would confuse.
>
> If none of them is a fit, the Ruby Way could define a new data model,
> and publish it as a stable spec.
>
> The infoset spec seems to represent what a new RubyWay XML tree API needs.
> http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/
>
> Tobi
>
>
>
> --
> Tobias Reif
> http://www.pinkjuice.com/myDigitalProfile.xhtml
>
> go_to('www.ruby-lang.org').get(ruby).play.create.have_fun
> http://www.pinkjuice.com/ruby/
>
>