[betwixt] extensible optional parameters in .betwixt file

[robert burrell donkin]

when discussing adding entries to the .betwixt file to allow users to 
choose whether a property should output CDATA or escaped character 
data, i indicated that i'd prefer not to start adding extra elements to 
the .betwixt file that only applied to certain strategies and 
configuration and instead look to add an extensible system for optional 
parameters.

my proposed name for the tag is 'option' (since property could be 
confused with the property on the bean). the name and value (for the 
parameter) will be the content of enclosed tags with those names (i 
prefer attributes but suspect that sooner or later large values will be 
needed). betwixt will read these and add the name-value pairs to the  
appropriate descriptor. strategies (and so on) should be able to read 
these values and interpret them freely.

for example:

<info ...>
...
        <element ...>
                <option>
<name>org.apache.commons.betwixt.content-encoding</name>
<value>CDATA</value>        
                </option>
        </element>
...
</info>
these options would be seen as hints rather than declarations. i mean 
by this that different configurations of betwixt would be free to 
behave differently - or ignore them completely. unlike the other 
(declarative) elements who presence indicates a contract.

comments welcomed.

i have some additional ideas on inheritance which i'll outline later 
(if you've been wondering about that).

- robert

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