jQuery 1.5 Ajax Converters

jQuery 1.5 Ajax Converters

Can someone point me to possible a more thorough explanation of how to use converters? I understand what they are to be used for, I just need a better explanation of the syntax involved.

For example, on the jQuery site, under "Extending Ajax", there is the following as part of the explanation:
  1. $.ajax( url, {
     dataType: "xml text mydatatype",
     converters: {
     "xml text": function( xmlValue ) {
     // Extract relevant text from the xml document
     return textValue;
     }
     }
    });







dataType has 3 values (xml, text and mydatatype). What does this mean? What does the ordering of them dictate?

Can I specify multiple converters to handle different possible incoming data types? And what happens if the incoming data type does not match a converter? Do I just get that datatype back?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

Then in the converter, what does "xml text" mean? Does it mean we are converting from xml to text?

Does this assume or require the the response is coming back in a particular format?

It is my understanding that the first value is the source data type and the second is the destination data type. Is this accurate?