xmlhack: New Content Models, Load and Save for DOM

The W3C has released a new Working Draft of DOM Level 3's Content Models and Load and Save Specification.

This DOM module is intended to provide "a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents."

While content models and the longstanding need for load-and-save functionality in DOM trees might seem like an odd fit for a single module, the content model section

"interacts strongly with the Load and Save chapter, which is also under development in DOM Level 3. Not only will that code serialize/deserialize content models, but it may also wind up defining its well-formedness and validity checks in terms of what is defined in this chapter. In addition, the CM and Load/Save functional areas will share a common error-reporting mechanism allowing user-registered error callbacks. Note that this may not imply that the parser actually calls the DOM's validation code."

The Content Model chapter maintains neutrality between DTDs, W3C XML Schemas, and other possible forms of structural checking, noting that:

"This module provides a representation for XML content models, e.g., DTDs and XML Schemas, together with operations on the content models, and how such information within the content models could be applied to XML documents used in both the document-editing and CM-editing worlds. It also provides additional tests for well-formedness of XML documents, including Namespace well-formedness."

The Load-and-Save chapter has expanded significantly, and now contains interfaces and a list of issues in addition to requirements.