XML Schema?

[Alex Martelli]

"Harry George" <hgg9140 at cola.ca.boeing.com> wrote in message
news:xqxg0h94dj8.fsf at cola.ca.boeing.com...
> My concern was not about parsers per se, but a general body of work
> rapidly developing and moving to either legal or defacto standard
> status.  If that work is focused on one or a few languages, then other
> languages have some difficulty staying in the game.

...unless the "other languages" are particularly apt at "fitting into
diverse ecological niches" -- Python does that well:-).

> So I'm looking for a low cost way to keep up.  One way is to bind to
> libraries generated by others -- that's easier done against C/C++
> libraries.

Easier than what...?  Definitely not easier than Java/Python
integration (with Jython), so I must be misreading you...?

> Another is to do idiomatic code conversion -- that's
> probably easier done from Java to Python.

Among the easiest things in the world (definitely easier than
stealing candy from a baby, even not considering the moral
implications of this latter act) is using Java classes from
the Jython version of Python.  If, as I originally read your
message, such use is what you desire, then I don't understand
your concern.

If, OTOH, XML use from Python is actually your main thrust,
I'd stay with 4Suite.  But that's a personal choice -- there's
just SO much current/modern/leading-edge stuff out there for
Java, that Jython may be the best choice for cross-platform
work, just as Python + win32com probably is for Windows-only
work for similar reasons.

Anyway, my key point is that the ease of "extending and
embedding" Jython with Java is *astounding* -- a completely
different order of magnitude from 'extending and embedding'
CPython with C or C++.  You don't have to write ONE LINE of
Java code in the knowledge that it will ever be used from
Python -- you can do all that's needed on the Python side
of things.  .NET may give us all that and more besides one
(perhaps not-too-far-off) day, but Java and Jython give a
LOT today, within the JVM's limitations (speed, possible
security issues, etc) which you'd have from Java itself as
well to some extent.


Alex