[XML-SIG] Re: [JPYTHON] saxlib and enumerations

Paul Prescod papresco@technologist.com
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 12:16:21 -0500


Jim Hugunin wrote:
> 
> This is an important characteristic of enumerations, and it's not something I
> plan to get rid of.  I don't know enough about SAX to be able to say whether
> or not this is the appropriate abstraction here.

attribute lists are essentially a dictionary. Getting the "attnames"
enumeration is like getting the keys() of the dictionary. Order
shouldn't matter. Indexed access is more or less meaningless.
 
> If what is really wanted is a Python list, then you will need to go with
> option #1.

No. We just want an enumeration. If Python had an enumeration protocol
(hopefully it will soon!) we would use that instead.
 
> PS - In JDK 1.2 Java defines a number of much better generic container
> interfaces.  I have every intention of making all Java objects that support
> these container interfaces as easy to use as Python's builtin containers.

Great!

 Paul Prescod  - http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

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