I considered this type of config way back before I implemented the Interface21 framework discussed in "Expert 1:1 J2EE". I chose the ability to validate the XML and work with tools. The Spring team discussed this issue again last spring before we committed to the initial form of the DTD.
The DTD we have also allows many sophisticated features that are not easily possible with the simplified format, attractive as it may seem, so it's not driven only by tool support. (Btw have you tried using a good XML editor, or the XMLBuddy Eclipse plugin for ex. It greatly simplifies working with the XML. Or the Spring Eclipse plugin itself.)
Of course we could fairly easily _also_ support such a simpler format, with restricted power, within the Spring architecture. As we can support non-XML formats. However, the confusion might outweigh the advantages of multiple XML formats.
R
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Spring is very fine, but I find standard XmlBeanFactory language a bit verbose. Instead
of writing
<bean id="myBean" class="myClass">
<property name="myProp">my value
....
wouldn'it be nice to write
<myBean class="myClass">
<myProp>value</myProp>
?
I considered this type of config way back before I implemented the Interface21 framework discussed in "Expert 1:1 J2EE". I chose the ability to validate the XML and work with tools. The Spring team discussed this issue again last spring before we committed to the initial form of the DTD.
The DTD we have also allows many sophisticated features that are not easily possible with the simplified format, attractive as it may seem, so it's not driven only by tool support. (Btw have you tried using a good XML editor, or the XMLBuddy Eclipse plugin for ex. It greatly simplifies working with the XML. Or the Spring Eclipse plugin itself.)
Of course we could fairly easily _also_ support such a simpler format, with restricted power, within the Spring architecture. As we can support non-XML formats. However, the confusion might outweigh the advantages of multiple XML formats.
R
I understand.
Thanks,
Carlo.