Which XML library to use?

Preston Landers pibble at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 6 12:02:03 EDT 2001


Hello all.

I've got some legacy code to maintain that was using the PyXML 0.5.4
release under Python 1.5.2.  We're moving to Python 2.1 for other
reasons, and now we find that out existing XML code won't work.

We could probably continue to use the PyXML 0.5.x release, except
we've found it won't work very well in Windows with Python 2.1.  (It
seems to work fine on Unix...)

So as I see it, our alternatives are:

1) Update our code to use the XML libraries now built-in to Python 2.1
(a non-trivial task.)

2) Update our code to use the PyXML 0.6.x release.  I see that there
is a Win32 release of this library compatible with Python 2.1. 
However, it looks like the interface is different enough from the 0.5
release to be just as much work as option #1.

3) Somehow hack PyXML 0.5 to work with Python2.1 on Win32.  We would
not have to change any of our legacy code.

Basically, I'm trying to decide between the first two options and need
some help.

Which is "recommended" set of XML libraries? The ones now included
with Python 2.1.1 or the PyXML 0.6.6 release?

It looks like the PyXML interface has changed significantly from 0.5.x
versions, so it wouldn't be a drop-in replacement for us.  Since it
looks like I'll be making extensive changes to our code for a new API
no matter what, the question becomes "which set of XML libraries is
more stable / 'better'?"

Can anyone offer some insight on this issue?

sincerely,

Preston Landers
Software Developer, Journyx Inc.
planders at journyx.com



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