ElementTree - Why not part of the core?

[Steven Bethard]

skip at pobox.com wrote:
> I think the key here is ElementTree's Pythoninc API.  While it's clearly
> possible to install it as a third-party package, I think there's a clear
> best-of-breed aspect here that suggests it belongs in the standard
> distribution simply to discourage continued use of DOM-based APIs.

I second this.  Guido has said many times that the stdlib is for 
best-of-breed modules that have proven themselves in the wild. 
ElementTree has proven itself in the wild and is clearly best-of-breed. 
  And dramatically better (IMHO) than the APIs currently included in the 
stdlib[1].

I don't have a whole lot of free time, and I'm not sure exactly how I 
could help, but if there's anything I could do that would help get 
ElementTree into the stdlib, let me know.

STeVe

[1] If I had my way, we'd deprecate and then remove the current Python 
xml modules.  But of course then people would complain that Python 
doesn't have a SAX or DOM API.  Of course we could tell them that they 
don't need it and that ElementTree is easier, but I'm not sure people 
really want to fight that battle.