[jdom-interest] Thoughts on...

[Gary Bentley]

I would only want that the addContent would (under the hood) makes those
calls...since JDOM is supposed to be Java oriented then it would seem
reasonable to have them???

I'm not advocating mimicing PrintStream (which can be flaky in my view), all
I'd like is support for more data types than just String...

In fact you answer the problem yourself, all I would like to have is JDOM
make the String.valueOf calls myself so I don't have to clutter up my code
and I get a standard interface to adding content.

As a final thing, in general if you are building up a document I have found
it not uncommon to write code like:

	Element el = new Element ("val").addContent (new Element
("val2").addContent (String.valueOf (x))));

The actual value added is lost at the end of the line under a
String.valueOf...which may also be an expression, i.e.
(System.currentTimeMillis () - starttime).  At least removing the
String.valueOf shortens the line quite a bit.

Breaking up the code does not add any real readability either since it takes
away the direct relationship between val and val2 and gives more to read...

	Element el = new Element ("val");
	Element valel = new Element ("val2");
	valel.addContent (String.valueOf (x));

...

Anyone else any thoughts...also, what would be the problem with having a
bigger API?  An API is supposed to make the application programmers life
easier, so more, in general, is better...

G.

-----Original Message-----
From: jdom-interest-admin at jdom.org
[mailto:jdom-interest-admin at jdom.org]On Behalf Of Elliotte Rusty Harold
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 6:31 PM
To: jdom-interest at jdom.org
Subject: Re: [jdom-interest] Thoughts on...


At 4:42 PM +0000 3/15/01, Gary Bentley wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Could I request that there be new methods added to Element so that "text"
>content can be added via primitive types and object.  In other words have:
>
>	Element.addContent (Object obj);
>	Element.addContent (int val);
>	Element.addContent (long val);
>	Element.addContent (char val);
>	Element.addContent (float val);
>	Element.addContent (double val);
>	Element.addContent (boolean val);
>	Element.addContent (char[] vals);
>
>as well as: Element.addContent (String val);
>
>In other words have it similar to how PrintStream works.  Currently I have
>to convert all my values myself, which is a pain.
>

May I ask that this not be done? The question of how to properly
convert a binary number such as a double into a decimal number, and
then convert that into a string, is a much more complicated on than
it appears at first glance. It requires significant input from the
programmer as to what they want to happen in many different cases.
The java.text.DecimalFormat class provides a proper APi for this.
PrintStream() does not.

JDOM should not be burdened with the very difficult problem of how to
convert a number to a String. We should let programmers do it as they
see fit in their applications. If a programmer really does just want
the default behavior of PrintStream, then it's straightforward to
write

e.addContent(String.valueOf(x));

or

e.addContent("" + x);

Very little is gained by adding the proposed methods, though they do
make the API larger and more complicated.
--

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