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Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:05:20 -0400
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To: Keryx Web <webmaster@keryx.se>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] DOM shortcuts
From: rrichards@ctindustries.net (Rob Richards)

Hi,

Keryx Web wrote:
> 1. When using the shortcut DOMElement::nodeValue on an element node,
> where the standard says DOMElement::firstChild::nodeValue, is there any
> difference whatsoever between DOMElement::nodeValue and
> DOMElement::textContent?
None whatsoever. nodeValue on an element was added for convenience. 
textContent was a Level 3 method and not implemented until later on. The 
initial focus when DOM was being developed was Level 1 and Level 2.
>
> 2. Using this as well as the the non-standard last parameter on
> DOMDOcument::createElement and DOMDOcument::createElementNS, am I taking
> advantage of some magic in libxml2 or is this invented by you PHP 
> guys, as was my guess?
This was added to save PHP developers time. In most cases, elements 
contain simple text content (not mixed node types). Allowing the element 
to be created along with its content saves some time and coding when 
creating/editing documents. No magic involved. In fact libxml2 had a 
single function to do this.
>
> If so, are these feature available in any other language or library?
> I've checked Gdome, Perl XML::DOM, Perl XML::LibXML::DOM and Java, as
> well as every major browser and the answer so far seems to be no.
Unknown, though probably not. I added them strictly for the convenience 
of PHP developers.
>
>
> I am asking this as especially the first one seem to be a very
> convenient shortcut and I will lobby the What-WG/W3C to make it part 
> of the standard.
These would most certainly not make the standard. The first already 
exists in the form of textContent in Level 3 specs. The second is a 
limited piece of functionality for creating content within an element. 
Although this is the type of document the majority of PHP developers are 
using (only basing this on experience and feedback from people), content 
is sometimes much more complex than this, so I doubt a parameter 
limiting functionality this much would be added.

Rob