[jdom-interest] Merging text nodes

[bob mcwhirter]

On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, Dennis Sosnoski wrote:

> I agree with Alex that the auto-magical text merging behavior can create 
> problems. Why not use a normalize()-type method to handle this (which 
> could even be in a support class, rather than in the core classes)? That 
> way the code complexity is reduced and there's no overhead for checking 
> possible merges unless the user actually makes the request.

I agree whole-heartedly with this recommendation.

If anything is done dynamically, on-the-fly, then programatically
constructed documents may undergo an 'optimization' run after
each modification.  I think it's best to externalize this functionality,
and let the developer decide when/if this should be done.

Possibly, add a switch to the FooBuilders (or make it default) to 
use the normalization after the document is built.

Any sort of piece-wise normalization will cause fits, and it'll
be difficult to know when document construction is 'done' without
the aide of the developer building the document.

	-bob