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The E4X standard allows the addition of
APIs in certain circumstances, but not this one. The standard explicitly prohibits
the addition of methods to the XML or XMLList prototype objects, which are where
the other methods like appendchild(), etc. live. One could argue that we could
add a removeChild() method, but only to the AS3 namespace, but I don’t
know if we would want to go down that road. I asked someone who worked on the E4X specification
about the rationale for the lack of a removeChild() method, and not
surprisingly he didn’t remember (it was a couple years ago and that’s
a pretty esoteric issue). My guess is that the committee felt that delete was
adequate and there was no need to add an extra method that did the same thing. Moreover,
as Gordon mentioned below, the current implementation is consistent with the
existing functionality of the delete operator, and one of the goals of the E4X
spec was to use as much of the core language as possible to manipulate XML
objects. Apologies that our docs didn’t
mention the delete operator in the XML class. In response to this thread, we’ve
added links to the delete operator to the “See Also” sections of
the four methods mentioned below. Thanks for bringing this up, Francis From: It may not be a Flash decision either
since the API of the XML class is specified by the E4X standard. It would depend
on whether that standard allows an implementor to add additional APIs or not. - Gordon From: For native Flash Player APIs, I'd log a
bug against the player... this isn't really a Flex decision. From: I am not really fussing very hard, it is just
that we have: XML.appendChild() XML.insertChildAfter() XML.insertChildBefore() XML.prependChild() but no XML.removeChild? delete is a completely different style
syntax. From: I don't know whether it is the best or
only way, but it seems consistent with the use of the 'delete' operator to
remove a dynamic property of an Object. - Gordon From: If
this is the final API, I can deal with it, it is just
inconsistent and undocumented, and a bit of a shock when the rest of the api is
so clean and logical. I
admit I have not read the e4x specification.
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Title: is "delete" really the best/only way to remove a node in e4x?
- RE: [flexcoders] is "delete" really the best/only... Francis Cheng
- [flexcoders] The Kiwi project (cool new app and resour... David Mendels
- [flexcoders] Max 2006 Darren Houle
- RE: [flexcoders] Max 2006 Joan Tan
- RE: [flexcoders] Max 2006 Ben Forta
- RE: [flexcoders] Max 2006 Darren Houle
- [flexcoders] Re: The Kiwi project (cool new app an... dirtmediaworld
