[XML-SIG] Release 3 of XML package

[Andrew Kuchling]

I've just made available the latest omnibus package of the XML
software; this is the third alpha release.  Get it from:

	http://www.python.org/sigs/xml-sig/files/xml-package-0.3.tgz

Please try it out, since we're starting to get really close with this
one.  You should be able to unpack, compile, and install it without
too much difficulty.  Once installed, you should then be able to start using
it for XML work.

Please send me a note (privately) if you install it, even if it worked
without problems, so I can gauge how many people have tried it.

Changes:
	* Now contains saxlib-1.0gamma, and the latest Expat.
	* Pulled the C modules into the root directory; this
	  simplified building a *lot*.
	* Split the documentation into a HOWTO and a reference manual.
	  See:
		http://www.python.org/doc/howto/xml/ 
		http://www.python.org/doc/howto/xml-ref/
	* Added demo/ and test/ directories.  The framework for a test
suite is there; we only need to write test_*.py files (similar to
Python's test suite).  It doesn't use Clark's XML test suite yet;
that's next on my list.  You would unpack xmltest in the test/
directory, and a test_xml.py module would check for its presence and
loop over the tree.

The missing pieces are now mostly secondary ones:

        * Make more passes over the documentation and improve it.  I
also have to produce plain ASCII versions and put them in the doc/ directory.

        * More demo programs.  If you have a little XML processing
program that would be of interest, let me know and I'll add it.

        * Flesh out the test suite; it should use Clark's test suite,
and test all the available parsers.  

	* Create a set of Web pages on www.python.org at /topics/xml/;
these would be the major starting point for Python & XML.  

Open questions:

	* Licensing: Python-style?

	* Tar file name: I've been calling it xml-package, which is a
bit long.  xml-py-0.3.tgz?  (Too cryptic?)  

	* Is there anything else that should be added to the package?
Lars has an experimental XPointer implementation; should it go in?
What about a saxlib driver for some Java parsers?  Anything else?
Last call...

Otherwise, we're almost on track for my earlier schedule.  For the
next release I'm working toward better documentation and test suite,
and hopefully some demo programs will appear.  The next release would
then be 0.4; I'd wait a week to see if any problems get reported, and
if none appear, then call 0.4 the first beta release.  0.4 would then
be the first release that would get announced on comp.lang.python,
since the code will finally be ready for general use and testing.

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.skyport.net/crew/amk/
If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist it's
another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of
nonconformity.
    -- Bill Vaughan