[XML-SIG] Availability of libxml2 and libxslt Python bindings

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Daniel Veillard wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2002 at 02:26:49PM +0100, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> > I've downloaded both the libxml2 and libxslt libs, but it's
> > not clear to me where to find the Python extensions (there's
> > some mention of them in libxslt, but nothing in libxml2).
> 
>   In the python subdir in the source tree

I found that only in libxslt... not in libxml2. Am I missing
something, or is this intended ?
 
> > Ideal would be to have them as distutils setup.py style
> > packages, so that it is possible to install them without
> > having to compile the libs themselves.
> 
>   Hum, a lot of them are actually generated, and then need
> some preprocessing, the stubs for example are not part of the
> archives (but build with a python script). This would basically
> amount to rewrite the python/Makefile.am with a different facility.
> The key point is that I'm not used to setup.py, it must have
> some knowledge of the C compiler flags for shared libs, the path
> to python binaries and associated paths, etc... Can you share a
> pointer describing this ?

It's all here:

	http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/doc/

Note that distutils has its own way of finding the Python
paths.

Providing paths to various files needed from libxml2/xslt
can be done by either automatic lookup or customizing 
the build_ext command.

If you can provide the readily built .c and .h files,
it should be no problem creating a setup.py files which
then does the rest.

If you need help, just ask (preferrably on the 
distutils-sig or me directly).

> > Also, I'm a little unsure how the David Kuhlman Python
> > extensions fit into the picture: are they no longer needed
> > or do they provide extra functionality ?
> 
>    They are not needed, I learned from David's binding but
> the bindings are very different. Mine are automatically generated
> from a strict definition of the libraries APIs (with a bit of glue
> of course).

Ok.

One other thing which I couldn't find on the web-site:
what licenses are imposed on libxml2/xslt and the Python
bindings.

The .tar.gz files contain the GPL COPYING file and
the LGPL COPYING.LIB file but the various other
(source) files don't mention any license at all
and the README also points to a W3C license... a bit
confusing :-)

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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