[jdom-interest] An interesting XML parser

[Jason Hunter]

"Rosen, Alex" wrote:
> 
> > http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-elexml/ind
> > ex.html?open&l=136,t=gr,p=electricXML
> 
> Even more interesting, on the actual web site for the parser, check out the
> comparison of Electric XML vs. JDOM:
> http://www.themindelectric.com/products/xml/jdom.html
> 
> It contains a couple of false or misleading statements ("As far as we can tell,
> JDOM was designed to make DOM easier to use"). It also doesn't point out two of
> JDOM's biggest advantages over Electric XML: it's fully open source, and it
> will (presumably) become a standard part of the JDK.

Yes, I wrote to them a month ago about that piece and informed them of
all their misleading statements.  They've done nothing to change it. 
Perhaps if others complained?  I'll forward my original email to them
after this.  I agree with your assessment on the advantages of JDOM.

> On the other hand, there are a couple of features (aside from the claimed
> speed) that seem pretty cool: the integrated XPath support, and the clever
> namespace support (at least it seems clever, there may be hidden consequences
> of this scheme). I wonder if these are worth borrowing?

It'd be interesting to examine the Javadocs for good ideas.

> P.S. Jason, Brett, should anyone who intends to contribute code to JDOM avoid
> downloading this product, just in case?

Hmm... Does it come with source?  We have to be careful if so.  As I
understand it, we can leverage its good ideas so long as they're not
patented, but viewing the source should be avoided.

-jh-