def to_child_string_hash
      hash = {}
      children do |child|
        # FIXME: it is quite hard to be sure whether we should mimic the Java version
        # as there might be a lot of values that don't translate nicely to Strings.
        hash[child.name] = child.value.to_s
      end
      return hash
    end
def to_child_string_hash
      hash = {}
      children do |child|
        # FIXME: it is quite hard to be sure whether we should mimic the Java version
        # as there might be a lot of values that don't translate nicely to Strings.
        hash[child.name] = child.value.to_s
      end
      return hash
    end
Returns a new Hash where the children's names as keys and their values as the key's value.
 Values are converted to Strings. +nil+ values become empty Strings.
 Example:

   child1 "toto"
   child2 2
   child3 null

 would give

   { "child1" => "toto", "child2" => "2", "child3" => "" }