[jdom-interest] detach() [eg]

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

>Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
>>
>>  I propose the following compromise:
>>
>>  1. If detach() is called on the root element, then an exception is thrown.
>
>Current mneumonic:
>addContent(elt.clone());  // copy
>addContent(elt.detach()); // move
>
>Proposed mneumonic:
>addContent(elt.clone());  // copy
>try {
>   addContent(elt.detach());  // try a move
>} catch (IllegalXXXException e) {
>   elt.getDocument().setRootElement(new Element("filler"));
>   addContent(elt);
>}
>
>I prefer the former.
>

I question the use case. How many times do you want to move the root 
element of a document? In any case, it seems to me that all we're 
saying is that when an element is used as the root the Document has 
locked it and won't let it be moved without a replacement. That seems 
perfectly reasonable to me.

However,  this is not the problem. The problem is the phantom element 
JDOM attaches to the root after detaching the root. That seems really 
ugly and unexpected to me. I had no idea JDOM was even doing that 
until this thread popped up. I think it violates the principle of 
least surprise. There is simply no way to predict that JDOM is going 
to create a new root element behind my back with an unknown name and 
assign it to the Document. It seems a lot less surprising to me that 
JDOM tosses an exception when I try to detach the root element.

Furthermore, the proposed semantics of detach seem quite clear: if 
the parent is an element, then remove it from the parent. If the 
parent is a document throw an exception. The logical distinction 
between the two cases and the reason they behave differently is clear.
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo at metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
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|                  The XML Bible (IDG Books, 1999)                   |
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