xml.dom.minidom -> nextElement ?

[Alexandre]

Hello all,

Could someone explain to me why there is no nextElement in minidom ?

if i execute this :
***************************************
import xml.dom.minidom
doc = """\
<root>
    <item>content1</item>
    <item>content2</item>
</root>"""
dom = xml.dom.minidom.parseString(doc)
firstItem = dom.getElementsByTagName("item")[0]
nextItem = firstItem.nextSibling
print nextItem
***************************************
the result is :
<DOM Text node "
    ">

so if i want the next element i could use "firstItem.nextSibling.nextSibling"

or write my own nextElement :
***************************************
def nextElement(current):
    pointer = current.nextSibling
    if pointer.nodeType == pointer.ELEMENT_NODE:
        return pointer
    elif pointer == None:
        return None
    else: return getNextElement(pointer)
***************************************
But i'm wondering if i am not missing something obvious ?
Thx in advance for your help.
Alexandre