[Htmlparser-developer] Please welcome Marc Novakowski

[Somik R. <so...@ya...>]

Hi Folks,
    We've had a new developer join us this week - Marc Novakowski.
    Here's a brief bio:

Originally from Canada, Marc has been living in the San Francisco Bay =
Area since 1999 working for various startup companies.  He is currently =
a senior engineer for a company called Kenamea, working on Java =
development on projects involving secure, reliable, messaging systems.  =
He has a BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Alberta, and =
has been a professional programmer for over ten years.

On his experience with htmlparser, in his own words...

I'm using the parser as part of a framework that translates "custom" XML =
tags embedded in HTML into special javascript code.  The javascript is =
essentially a UI construction and event model system.  What this allows =
us to do is use the XML "language" to build up a library of components =
that can be instantiated in your application very easily using simple =
XML.  It also means that the app developer doesn't have to know =
javascript, only the XML syntax.  Actually, we're building an IDE as =
well so they won't really have to know the XML syntax either -- they'll =
be able to just drag and drop components into their application.

The main reason I'm not using a standard XML parser such as xerces is =
that it would die horribly on the HTML.  Even if I were to manually =
extract the "custom" tags and parse only that, it is possible that there =
is some javascript or HTML as children of the custom tags which would =
case xerces to die.  When I saw how extensible the htmlparser library =
was, it was a no-brainer.  So far it's been very easy to add new "tags" =
and "scanners" and define what sort of behavior the new tags have.

The way I've been finding the latest set of bugs is by replacing the =
"htmlparser.jar" I use in my component system with the latest jar and =
running the tests for my own code.  When those tests break, I try to =
figure out what in htmlparser has changed and log a bug report.  Now =
that I have developer access, I can add new test cases that reveal these =
problems (and maybe even fix them!).

Marc -> Welcome to the dev team!

Cheers,
Somik