[XML-SIG] XPath in Python 2

[Mike Olson]

Paul Prescod wrote:
> 
> Mike Olson wrote:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > Or we could re write the parser in C/python.  There has been some talk
> > of doing it with SRE....
> 
> I would personally benefit from having a full XPath engine in Python.
> Let me play the devil's advocate and point out the potential problems.
> 
>  * building: can we add a FLEX/Bison dependency to the Python source?

  We can always include bison and flex generated code so there is no
dependnecy on these tools.

>  * maintenance: if the FourtThought guys retire to Tahiti after selling
> out for a million to Red Hat, will someone else be willing to maintain
> all of that code?

Hey, I thought those talks were confidential :)


I vote for supporting both.  Too different drivers.  If you want
Bison/flex it will work, if not you can do it all in python....  I think
Bison and Flex will have better performance, atleast for a while...


> 
> In general, Guido seems skittish about taking on large modules/packages.
> I can't blame him because as BDFL he agrees to keep that code in sync
> with the rest of Python forever. Expat is only sort of "halfway" in
> there (in binary, not source distributions) and that took some arm
> twisting.
> 

> 
> Let me suggest a parallel approach. We can agree on an API so that
> whether we put in a tiny version or a full version, the API doesn't
> change. Meanwhile, we can try to groom 4XPath for inclusion (in 1.6 or
> 1.7) if the powers that be agree. My personal feeling is that the
> Flex/Bison dependency is a show stopper. I wouldn't propose it for core
> status while it is dependent (but I encourage anyone else to do it, if
> they feel differently).

Then maybe we need to work on the pure python version.  That is what I
originally started out with, but it was dog slow......  I'll play with
it again in my spare time :)

I'm not too picky about API, as its quite small.  I picture something
regexish....

Mike

> 
> --
>  Paul Prescod - Not encumbered by corporate consensus
> "Computer Associates is expected to come in with better than expected
> earnings." Bob O'Brien, quoted in
>         - http://www.fool.com/news/2000/foth000316.htm
> 
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-- 
Mike Olson				 Principal Consultant
mike.olson@fourthought.com               (303)583-9900 x 102
Fourthought, Inc.                         http://Fourthought.com 
Software-engineering, knowledge-management, XML, CORBA, Linux, Python