[Python-Dev] Performance of various marshallers

[Skip Montanaro]

    >> Paul, you have to stop looking at XML-RPC with your Elton John-style
    >> XML-colored glasses.  XML-RPC is not meant to be some sort of highly
    >> structured hierarchical data representation that you can sniff around
    >> in with arbitrary XML tools of one sort or another. That its
    >> on-the-wire representation happens to be XML is almost ridiculously
    >> unimportant.

    Paul> XML-RPC uses XML for exactly the same reason every other
    Paul> application of XML uses XML.

I disagree with that.  Lots of applications use XML because it's got that
pants-wetting capability I described earlier.

    >> Fine.  I'm sure Shilad appreciates the input.  I think your approach
    >> to bug detection and reporting could have been a bit less heavy
    >> handed.

    Paul> I'm not trying to embarrass Shilad. The software isn't at 1.0
    Paul> yet. Maybe he hasn't got around to choosing an XML parser.

Or maybe he has a different set of constraints than you.

    Paul> I'm trying to point out (more to you, than to him!) that there is
    Paul> a good reason to build on the work other people have done. If
    Paul> pyxmlrpc is faster today it is probably because it doesn't conform
    Paul> to the specs.  When it does conform, it won't be faster anymore.

Why point this out to me?  I am essentially just an XML-RPC user, not an
implementer.  I happen to be interested in making my XML-RPC-using code run
faster.  If I have to make some sacrifices I could care less, as long as my
clients and my servers can talk to one another.

    >> As for handling things like CDATA, UTF-16 and extra whitespace after
    >> tag names, I suspect some other XML-RPC packages would exhibit
    >> similar problems if they were exposed to a standards-toting XML
    >> gunslinger like yourself.  That it's not a problem in practice is
    >> probably because the set of XML-RPC encoding and decoding software is
    >> fairly small and that the stuff that encodes into XML-RPC is fairly
    >> well-behaved.

    Paul> Every XML-RPC implementation I have ever used (Python, Perl, C,
    Paul> C++, PHP) is based upon one pure XML parser or another. Most use
    Paul> Expat.

Oh well.

S