[jdom-interest] Auto-normalizing attribute values

[Jason Hunter]

Hallvard Tratteberg wrote:
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Subject: Re: [jdom-interest] Auto-normalizing attribute values
> >
> > Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
> > > Should the various setAttributeValue() methods in Element and Attribute
> > > check the attribute type and normalize the string according to the
> attribute type?
> > >
> > That would also mean updating the attribute value when the attribute type
> is changed.
> > But if the type is then switched back to the previous one, the original
> attribute value is lost.
> >
> > Why not just change the getAttributeValue methods to only normalize the
> > returned value according to the current type without changing the
> > inner storage?
> 
> As long as the default attribute type (when there is no DTD) does not imply
> changing the value, we should not require the original to be kept. When the
> attribute type later is set, the programmer should be aware of the
> "destructive" behavior.
> 
> I propose we add a method e.g. String normalizeValue() (note not
> normalizeAttributeValue :-) that is called whenever the attribute value or
> type is changed. This method is responsible for changing the value according
> to the normalization rules for the type. This method is also a hook for
> potential subclasses of Attribute that want to compute the String value
> based on an object or property.
> 
> Hallvard

I'm easy on this issue, although my gut instinct is to avoid being too
fancy on things like this.

-jh-