Message5777

Whether or not adjacent text nodes are added together depends on
whether or not the DOM has been "normalized".

http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/core.html#ID-normalize

I can't find any reference for whether a DOM should be auto-normalized
when first loaded. If it should be automatically normalized, then
jython is defective here.

If the DOM should not be auto-normalized, then carrying out a
normalize() operation on the DOM will certainly ensure that adjacent
text nodes should be grouped together. If jython does not return the
expected results after a normalize() operation, then it is definitely
defective.

Please can you try the normalize() operation on the DOM, and see if that solves the problem?

Meantime, I will try to ascertain if the DOM should be auto-normalized.