From: Sean Russell <ser@...>
Date: 2002-07-05T09:16:00+09:00
Subject: Re: self_parent

David Alan Black wrote:

> REXML is specifically modeling the parent/child relationships of XML
> in that class, though (I think).  That's different from a
> language-level (I mean Ruby, not XML) description of one object as the
> "parent" of another because the second object is created by a method
> of the first object.

Yes.  A REXML parent/child relationship has nothing to do with object 
inheritance, but rather describes a contains/contained by relationship.

This is clouded by the fact that, in XML, elements can be seen to 'inherit' 
attributes from their parents -- namespaces, in particular.  Still, this is 
more of a scoping issue than a direct inheritance issue.

Put another way, parent/child in REXML is a homonym to parent/child in Ruby 
-- same words, different meaning.

-- 
 |..  "Even the Mongols rejected Communism... are we more dumb?"
<|>   --- Russian newspaper headline supporting Yeltzin's 1996 campaign
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