>>Im not sure i would call having multiple options a huge sore point It becomes one when serializing and de-serializing across a distributed application like x

>>Im not sure i would call having multiple options a huge sore point It becomes one when serializing and de-serializing across a distributed application like xerces class path issues in different jvm implementations.Not a common sore point though! >> Chances are many of these options would still exist even if there was an official API. True and agreed.