class REXML::Element

def whitespace

and so is namespace-sensitive.
The evaluation is tested against the element's +expanded_name+,

See {Element Context}[../doc/rexml/context_rdoc.html].

+false+ otherwise.
Returns +true+ if whitespace is respected for this element,

whitespace
:call-seq: 
def whitespace
  @whitespace = nil
  if @context
    if @context[:respect_whitespace]
      @whitespace = (@context[:respect_whitespace] == :all or
                     @context[:respect_whitespace].include? expanded_name)
    end
    @whitespace = false if (@context[:compress_whitespace] and
                            (@context[:compress_whitespace] == :all or
                             @context[:compress_whitespace].include? expanded_name)
                           )
  end
  @whitespace = true unless @whitespace == false
  @whitespace
end