lxml/ElementTree and .tail

[Uche Ogbuji]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> Chas Emerick wrote:
> > If I'm wrong, just chalk it up to the fact that this is the first
> > time I've ever looked at the Infoset spec, and I'm simply confused.
>
> the Infoset spec *is* the essence of XML; if you don't realize that an
> XML document is just a serialization of a very simple data model, you're
> bound to be fighting with XML all the time.

I certainly have never liked the aspects of the ElementTree API under
present discussion.  But that's not as important as the fact that I
think the above statement is misleading.  There has always been a
battle in XML between the people who think the serialization is
preeminent, and those who believe some data model is preeminent, but
the reality is that XML 1.0 (an 1.1) is a spec *defined* by its
serialization.  Infoset is a secondary and optional spec.  In fact, I
think it's clear that Infoset is not even the preeminent *data model*
of the XML world.  That distinction goes to the XPath data model, which
is quite different from the Infoset.

--
Uche Ogbuji                               Fourthought, Inc.
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