Deprecated API

[Alan Yackel <ay...@home.com>]

I tried asking this on struts-dev, but got no reply.  What I'm wondering is
why
is the Digester built on the deprecated HandlerBase instead of the SAX2
DefaultHandler?  Switching over to the newer SAX2 classes doesn't required
too much
work.  I did it with one other application.  It's mostly changing
AttributeList to
Attributes and changing the parameter list on a few methods.

Also I'm curious why Struts doesn't use the
org.apache.xerces.parser.SAXParser instead
of the one in javax.xml.parsers.  I would think that apache projects would
try leverage
work from other apache projects.  I'm in the middle of building a software
application
based on Struts for an internet consulting company.  I love the features and
flexibility
of Struts, but it's nice to keep current with technology.

Just asking,

Alan Yackel
Creatrixs Inc.

Re: Deprecated API

["Craig R. McClanahan" <Cr...@eng.sun.com>]

Alan Yackel wrote:

> I tried asking this on struts-dev, but got no reply.  What I'm wondering is
> why
> is the Digester built on the deprecated HandlerBase instead of the SAX2
> DefaultHandler?  Switching over to the newer SAX2 classes doesn't required
> too much
> work.  I did it with one other application.  It's mostly changing
> AttributeList to
> Attributes and changing the parameter list on a few methods.

Sorry for the no response on STRUTS-DEV ... I've been heads down on bug
fixes
getting ready for a 1.0 release.

The primary issue for Struts is to be compatible with as wide a range of
XML
parsers as possible, because different apps will have different
preferences.  To
date, there are a few SAX2 parsers, but only one compliant one that
conforms to
the JAXP APIs (see next paragraph), which is also matters.

>
> Also I'm curious why Struts doesn't use the
> org.apache.xerces.parser.SAXParser instead
> of the one in javax.xml.parsers.  I would think that apache projects would
> try leverage
> work from other apache projects.  I'm in the middle of building a software
> application
> based on Struts for an internet consulting company.  I love the features and
> flexibility
> of Struts, but it's nice to keep current with technology.

The javax.xml.parsers family of interfaces are part of the Java API for
XML
Processing (JAXP) suite, which ensures applications that they can be
independent
of the actual parser being used.  Using
org.apache.xerces.parser.SAXParser
directly would require a Struts app to use only Xerces, which is not
optimal for
every environment.

In addition, the Apache-specific APIs have been in substantial churn
over the
last few versions -- my preference will be to let this settle down (and
let
Xerces catch up to implementing the standard JAXP 1.1 interfaces) before
updating the technology that Digester uses.

>
> Just asking,
>
> Alan Yackel
> Creatrixs Inc.

Craig McClanahan