[Python-Dev] XML codec?

[Walter Dörwald]

Fred Drake wrote:
> On Nov 12, 2007, at 8:56 AM, Walter Dörwald wrote:
>> It isn't "embedded". codecs.detect_xml_encoding() is callable without
>> any problems (though not documented).
> 
> "Not documented" means not available, I think.

I just din't think that someone wants the detection function, but not
the codec, so I left the function undocumented.

>> Who would use such a function for what?
> 
> Being able to detect the encoding can be useful anytime you want
> information about a file, actually.  In particular, presenting encoding
> information in a user interface (yes, you can call that contrived, but
> some people want to be able to see such things, and for them it's a
> requirement).

And if you want to display the XML you'd need to decode it. An example
might be a text viewer. E.g. Apples QuickLook.

> If you want to parse the XML and re-encode, it's common
> to want to re-encode in the origin encoding; it's needed for that as
> well.  If you just want to toss the text into an editor, the encoding is
> also needed.  In that case, the codec approach *might* be acceptable
> (depending on the rest of the editor implementation), but the same
> re-encoding issue applies as well.
> 
> Simply, it's sometimes desired to know the encoding for purposes that
> don't require immediate decoding.  A function would be quite handing in
> these cases.

So the consensus seems to be: Add an encoding detection function
(implemented in Python) to the xml module?

Servus,
   Walter