[XML-SIG] Future plans

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com writes:
>I used to say that PyDOM and 4DOM addressed different users, but over time, 
>changes to 4DOM have made this less clear.  4DOM is now far more pythonic and 
>light-weight than when it started out.

I'd really like to discuss this issue more, because I've started
implementing DOM2 for PyDOM, but I'd hate to expend unneeded effort on
such a significant bit of work.  Some pros and cons:

Pros:

* An existing DOM Level 2 implementation.

* Maintainers use it actively for real work; PyDOM maintainer has
  short attention span.

* Has XPath and XSLT tools built on top of it.
  (Paul Prescod wrote a few weeks ago that "Ideally we would have one
  (or at most two!) implementation of each of the major specs: XML,
  SAX, Unicode, XPath, XPointer, XSLT, DOM"; if you take 4DOM + 4XSL +
  4Path, this would mean that Unicode is the only missing piece.)

* Faster than PyDOM

* Potential for CORBA support by adding some extra bits

Cons:

* Does anyone other than the maintainers have any experience with it?
  Any comments?  (If you don't want to slag it off publicly, you can
  send me unfavorable comments privately, and I'll preserve your
  anonymity.)

* Uses Ft.Dom package name, not xml.dom
* Potential incompatibilities with existing code, Sean's book, etc.
  (But probably a bit of glue code will let us smooth over such
  problems.)

* Requires releasing nodes explicitly

* Licensing OK?  (Currently it's Python-style, but the 4DOM TODO list
  implies that this may be reconsidered -- only free software licences
  are listed as candidates, so I'm not worried about FourThought
  turning evil.)

* Requires that 4Suite base be added to XML-SIG distribution
  (But the only dependency, at least in the DOM, seems to be on
  Ft.Lib.TraceOut.)

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
Worlds may freeze and suns may perish, but there stirs something within us now
that can never die again.
    -- H.G. Wells