Strange way to handle white spaces during parsing

[Jean-Christophe Broudin]

Hi,

        We have noticed that, with an XML file such as:

        <A> 
                <B>
                        <C> Bono </C>
                </B>
        </A>

        if one asks how many childs <A> tags owns (using getLength() on
getDocumentElement().getChildNodes() ), the answer is
 3. After investigation, whitespaces between <A> and <B>, then between
</B> and </A> are interpreted as text nodes. 

        On the same example, the XML parser included in IE 5.0 ignores these
whitespaces and the answer is 1. We think that 1 is the correct answer.
                
        I really wonder:

                Isn't it weird? 
                Is it the normal behavior? 
                Is there a means to disable this, and have an IE-5.0-like 
behaviour? 
                Is it an actual compliance to XML and DOM specs?


Regards,

        jean-christophe broudin.