Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

Why Use the DOM?

We already agreed that we don't want to reinvent the wheel. So, from a programming perspective, the DOM fits the bill. However, it's not the only language-independent API we can use. There is one other predominate API, called SAX (Simple API for XML, not the musical instrument that John Coltrane and a certain past U.S. president played). SAX, like the DOM, specifies an interface that can be used to process XML documents in a somewhat platform-independent fashion. It doesn't matter a lot in practical terms since it's becoming customary for most XML libraries to support both, but the DOM is an “official” W3C Recommendation and SAX isn't.

How are the DOM and SAX different, and why have I chosen the DOM? The DOM handles a complete ...