Provides an extensible implementation of the `org.w3c.dom` API. Since the J2SE defines this only in terms of interfaces, it is difficult to extend the functionality of the provided DOM implementation. This package provides an extensible set of classes which allow one to subclass the default implementation and add functionality. The implementation provided does not do any of its own work, it delegates all the work to an existing DOM tree, which must be provided on construction of the `DelegatingDocument`. This tree can be obtained in any of the usual ways (for instance the classes in `javax.xml.parsers`).

When extending these classes, you need to take some care that the nodes released to the user are the delegating nodes and not the delegate ('base') nodes on which they are based. See {@link uk.ac.starlink.votable.dom.DelegatingDocument} for how to go about extending the implementation. @author Mark Taylor (Starlink) @since 14 Sep 2004