[Python-Dev] ElementTree in stdlib

[Mike Brown]

"Martin v. L> So as that has more-or-less failed, the next natural approach is
> "let's believe in the community". For that, two things need to
> happen: the author of the package must indicate that he would like
> to see it incorporated, and the users must indicate that they like
> the package. Both has happened for ElementTree, but I think it
> could happen for other packages, as well.
> 
> If it is merely the lack of due process you are complaining about,
> and you agree with the result, then IMO nothing would need to be
> changed about the result. Discussing it post-factum on xml-sig
> might still be valuable.

Thanks Martin and others for responding.

I full agree that ElementTree has proven to be useful, popular, and stable, 
and probably no one would object to ElementTree being given the endorsement 
that is implicit in its being made a part of stdlib. 

The lack of due process, given that XML-SIG seems to exist largely to provide 
that very service for all things XML in Python, is indeed all I'm complaining 
about. I am happy that for once, there is momentum behind this sort of thing,
and more power to you for that.

My fears are just that 1. XML-SIG is being seen as either irrelevant or as an 
obstacle (perhaps due to the friction between Fredrik and Uche) and are thus 
being sidestepped, and 2. other libs that could/should be contenders (Amara 
and 4Suite are not in this list, by the way) are going to become further 
marginalized by virtue of the fact that people will say "well, we have 
ElementTree in stdlib already, why do we need (fill in the blank)?"

I suppose the same kind of implicit endorsements were given to minidom and 
SAX, and that obviously hasn't prevented people from going out and using 
ElementTree, lxml, etc., so I don't know... I can't predict the future. I'd 
just feel better about it if everyone on XML-SIG, where people hang out 
because they have a definite interest in this kind of thing, knew what was 
going on. Some authors of other libs may not even be aware that they could so 
easily have their code whisked into stdlib, if it's solid enough.

Mike