[XML-SIG] Reconsidering the DOM API

[Paul Prescod]

Uche Ogbuji wrote:
> 
> Just because I have to say it... 4XPath should work well with any DOM that
> supports the binding (it actually only uses attribute access).  However, it
> uses a C module and I understand those are harder to get sanctioned into the
> Python distro.

Because it is so much C code, and has a pretty sophisticated API, and
also depends on a bunch of Python code, I would rather wait until 1.7
for that. But I think we should give it serious consideration for 1.7.
Having full XPath would absolutely rock. Also, it doesn't just depend on
C -- it also depends on Yacc, right?

I'm not yet ready to accept that no Python-coded parser could parse
XPath efficiently. I want to propose that it is impossible to Fredrick
and see what happens in the next beta of SRE. :)

http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath

Above and beyond XPath, I would like to believe that reasonably
efficient parsers can be written in straight Python using SRE or at
least MXTools or something...

-- 
 Paul Prescod - Not encumbered by corporate consensus
The calculus and the rich body of mathematical analysis to which it 
gave rise made modern science possible, but it was the algorithm that 
made the modern world possible.
	- The Advent of the Algorithm (pending), by David Berlinski