[XML-SIG] Installing and Test xml-0.5pre2

[Dave Kuhlman]

xml-0.5pre2 looks very good to me.

I installed and tested under Linux Debian 2.0.
I'm using Python 1.5.1.

I had no problems compiling and installing.

In case it is not obvious, I'm extremely grateful for the work you
have done in support of XML for Python.  I really believe that
Python is going to be one of the best tools for processing XML. 
And, you people are making it happen.  Thanks.

Here are some notes about changes I made when running the demos. 
Read these with some skepticism.  Please don't spend too much time
replying to my comments.  I'm happier when you're fixing the code,
and I need to learn some of this for myself.

In demo/quotes/qtfmt.py, I changed:

19c19,21
< import wstring, iso8859  # For fixing UTF-8 encoding
---
> from xml.unicode import wstring
> from xml.unicode import iso8859
> 
353c355
< 
p=xml.sax.saxexts.XMLParserFactory.make_parser("xml.sax.drivers.drv_pyexpat")
---
> 	p=xml.sax.saxexts.XMLParserFactory.make_parser("pyexpat")


This probably should have been fixed by setting something in my 
environment.  (And, I believe that you fixed the path to pyexpat in 
pre3.) You might tell how to set up for these tests in the README in 
demo/quotes.

Whoa!  I just saw a xml-0.5pre3 on the download site.  You guys work 
fast. I downloaded it and installed it on my WinNT 4.0 machine here 
at work.  (I only get to use Linux at home; here at work the 
un-enlightened make me use WinNT.)  Again, with Python 1.5.1. Here 
is what I did to make it work:

1. Unzip the .zip file in a directory named, say, C:\Python\Test.
It created a sub-directory C:\Python\Test\xml-0.5.

2. Rename directory "xml-0.5" to "xml" (because on my Linux 
machine, that's the name of the sub-directory it looks for under 
site-packages, so I guessed that this is the PYTHONPATH we need).

3. Create and run a batch file set_envir.bat containing the 
following:

    set PATH=C:\Python\Test\xml-0.5\windows;%PATH%
    set PYTHONPATH=C:\Python\Test;%PYTHONPATH%

4. Run some demos.

You should consider including a README.windows file containing the 
above instructions or the correct ones if mine are wrong. (And it
doesn't quite work for pyexpat.  See below.)

A comment on SAX drivers -- Are all the files in 
site-packages/xml/SAX/drivers that begin with "drv_" supposed to be 
SAX drivers?  There were several that didn't work when I gave them 
as arguments to saxtimer.py.  Testing on WinNT 4.0, now.  
Specifically I got the error message "ERROR: Parser not available" 
when I tried to use:

    xmltoolkit
    xmldc
    sgmlop
    pyexpat

The following SAX drivers worked:

    xmllib
    sgmllib
    xmlproc

I can't get pyexpat to load.  This fails in demo/quotes/qtfmt.py and 
demo/sax/saxtimer.py.  I'm guessing that it has something to do with 
my path or PYTHONPATH, but I have not figured out what.  I have to 
spend more time looking at rec_find_module in saxexts.py, I suppose.

I'd like to see a few more notes (in README files) on how to run 
each of the demos.  Also, I'd like a few notes on how to set up my 
environment to run the demos.  I looked at some of the stuff in the 
doc directory, but have not had time to read it thoroughly. When I 
do, maybe my questions will be answered.

Many thanks again.

  -- Dave

-- 
Dave Kuhlman
EnterpriseLink Technology Corp
http://www.enterpriselink.com
2542 S. Bascom Ave., Suite #203
Campbell, CA 95008
dkuhlman@EnterpriseLink.com
408-558-2011