Back to XObjects was XLink - where a

[Bill la Forge]

David and all,

> MyXObject foo = (MyXObject) node;
> MyXObject bar = (MyXObject) node.getUserObject ();


Wrapping a user object with a DOM element is a liberating concept,
especially as it lets you use things like Swing components for the base
class, the DOM tree becoming, in effect, a bean box.

There are then two alternatives:

1. Exposing the wrapper element to the user object. Handy for some 
things where the user object needs to navigate the DOM tree, but quite
restrictive then on the choice of possible user objects.

2. Providing the data and other user object interconnections. This is where
meta data has its real strength--there is simply too much code to write with
an api.

Paul Rabin and I have been working on an expansion of the bindings document
to encompass the meta data needed to provide both the data mapping and
support arbitrary connections (add/North, addTag/"View", addListener/java.awt.ActionListener,
etc.).

One of the nice things to fall out is BindingSets. A BindingSet object supports the
DomBuilder interface, but has an associated set of Bindings documents to support
various types of documents. There is closure, so that all the Bindings of a set belong
only to that one set. (With a minor exception for subsets.)

The "big deal" about binding sets is that it is that you can now determine which set
of bindings to use when one document references another--by default, you just look
at the bindings that were used with the current document and go with the associated
bindings set.

Bill


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