Re: RFC: Simple XML Event-Based API for Java

Paul Prescod (papresco@technologist.com)
Thu, 18 Dec 1997 03:35:16 -0500

David Megginson wrote:
>=20
> > And one last thing: if you use URL, then you have to do a new URL()
> > which does (I think) at least some syntax checking... is this approp=
riate?
> > Why not just pass it as a string? -Tim
>=20
> For starting =C6lfred, I found using a string awkward, since I needed a
> base URL to resolve relative URLs (like file names). =20

XML attributes will probably have relative URLs in them and the XML
Application will have to know how to resolve them. Tim is right that
attributes are syntactically checked when they are created and can throw
an exception if there is a mistake. I would rather leave that up to the
application writer.

> Since XML
> mandates URIs anyway, and Java supports them pretty transparently,=20

XML mandates URIs, but Java supports URLs. I don't think that all Java
environments will allow new URL types to be installed. But if we are
just passing around strings then the application can recognize URNs and
Do The Right Thing.

> I
> thought that it made sense to use them directly instead of using a lot
> of Url.toString() and new URL(String) calls=20

I think that all we are doing is shifting the "new URL(String)" calls
from the processor to the application.

Paul Prescod