[jdom-interest] StringReader versus StringBufferInputStream

[Jason Hunter]

>>The SAXBuilder.build() javadocs say this about using
>>a StringReader (Reader
>>actually):  "It's always safer to use an InputStream
>>rather than a Reader,
>>if it's available."
> 
> This seems wrong. I think what it should say is "if
> you have a stream and are not sure about its encoding,
> it's safer to pass stream instead of trying to create
> a reader". This because XML parsers in general can
> auto-detect encoding from initial stream bytes, and/or
> from xml declaration (if one exists), and then
> construct appropriate reader that uses proper decoder.
> But properly constructed Readers are as safe as it
> gets, that statement just seems weird.

The full Javadoc statement is:

"This builds a document from the supplied Reader.  It's the programmer's 
responsibility to make sure the reader matches the encoding of the file. 
  It's always safer to use an InputStream rather than a Reader, if it's 
available."

So how about this:

"This builds a document from the supplied Reader.  It's the programmer's 
responsibility to make sure the reader matches the encoding of the file. 
  It's often easier to use an InputStream rather than a Reader, and to 
let the parser auto-detect the encoding from the XML declaration."

-jh-