PyXML XPath and XSLT Re: [XML-SIG] Mass assignment of 4Suite bug reports

[Martin v. Loewis]

Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com> writes:

> These modules have been broken a good long while, 

Correct. They have been waiting for the next 4Suite release all the
time.

> and they lag 4XPath and 4XSLT in 4Suite woefully.

They may lag the current implementation, but they don't lag the latest
released version that much.

> There are aspects of the 4Suite code base that makes it unsuitable
> for PyXML.  For one thing, we only support Python 2.1 and up now.
> For another, I think we used some C modules that Martin felt were
> too much to dump into PyXML.

Yes, in particular the bison parser modules.


> So if there is anyone who could work as co-maintainer with me, great.  We 
> could maybe even back-port some of the *many* improvements in 4Suite 
> (especially in performance) little by little.  

I've been planning to move to the 4Suite code base as-is once 0.12 is
released, wholesale. I don't think the backporting-to-2.0 issues will
be significant, and can be done little by little. Performing the
merging little by little seems to be a waste of time to me.

> On the flip side, if we're stuck without reliable maintenance, maybe it's 
> better to drop the packages.

I'm willing to do the merging after 0.12 is released. After that
point, another volunteer would be welcome.

> If this seems like a good idea, how about "pyxpath" and "pyxslt"?

Sounds good to me.

> Anyway, I think we should decide on these matters before the next
> release.

I don't think so. If you mean the next 4Suite release - I wanted to
act only after it. If you mean the next PyXML release - it will happen
by the end of this week, so I don't think we can do much until then.

> Things have been up in the air way too long.

Primarily because I've been waiting for 4Suite all the time :-)

Notice that inclusion of the current code base in releases was
completely on user request. I proposed, once, that the code should
merely live in the CVS, and not be released. Because of user protests,
we are now releasing this known-to-be-broken code. It appears that it
still makes some users happy - admittedly at the expense of causing
worries to other users.

Regards,
Martin