it'll probably be easiest for me to outline the proposed interface face first and then follow it with some explanation.
/**
* Pops an object from the named stack.
* If the stack does not exist, it will be created.
* @param stackName the name of the Stack from which an object should be popped
*/
public Object pop(String stackName);
/**
* Pushes an object onto the named stack.
* If the stack does not exist, it will be created.
* @param stackName the name of the Stack onto which the object should be popped
* @param object the Object to be pushed onto the named stack
*/
public void push(String stackName, Object object);
/** * Peeks at the Object on the top of the named stack/ * If the stack does not exist, it will be created. * @param stackName the name of the Stack to be examined. */ public Object peek(String stackName);
named stacks are intended to help solve the problem of inter-rule communication in a general and flexible way. at the moment, digester uses two stack for communication: one for the principle objects and one for parameters but no other forms of communication are provided for. named stacks is about providing an unlimited supply of extra stacks for use by rules. two rules can communicate by pushing and popping the stack with the same name.
a simple hashmap (allowing named objects) has been proposed as a solution to the problem of communication. i feel that named stacks provide all the functionality that a named object would provide (one rule pushes an object onto a particular stack, the other peeks at it) but also allows more complex communication helpful when processing deeply nested tags. (in this case, one rule might push several objects onto a particular stack and then a later rule may pop them off in order. of course, you could achieve the same effect by putting a list into a hashmap but i think i prefer the conceptual purity of stacks.)
i might be persuaded that the signatures should be objects rather than strings (i feel that named stacks has better conceptual strength than indexed stacks).
comments welcomed :)
- robert
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