[XML-SIG] Future plans

[uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com]

> uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com writes:

> * Does anyone other than the maintainers have any experience with it?
>   Any comments?  (If you don't want to slag it off publicly, you can
>   send me unfavorable comments privately, and I'll preserve your
>   anonymity.)

I'll be straightforward: I haven't heard of any other serious use of 4DOM 
besides our internal uses.  I know of several small-scale, and incidental 
cases, but nothing more.  This could be because of 4DOM's youth, because it 
changes so often, because DOM is so inevitable unpythonic, or because it is of 
poor quality.  Whatever the reason, I don't expect that you'll hear from a 
large chorus of major 4DOM users.

> * Uses Ft.Dom package name, not xml.dom
> * Potential incompatibilities with existing code, Sean's book, etc.
>   (But probably a bit of glue code will let us smooth over such
>   problems.)

We've already changed the package name once.  It is a pain, but we could do it 
again.

> * Requires releasing nodes explicitly
> 
> * Licensing OK?  (Currently it's Python-style, but the 4DOM TODO list
>   implies that this may be reconsidered -- only free software licences
>   are listed as candidates, so I'm not worried about FourThought
>   turning evil.)

I really need to take out that TODO item.  We wrote it when it was still LGPL 
and we were looking for better.  Now that we picked the Python license it will 
stay that way.

> * Requires that 4Suite base be added to XML-SIG distribution
>   (But the only dependency, at least in the DOM, seems to be on
>   Ft.Lib.TraceOut.)

Yes, it's only TraceOut.  We were considering a tool for stripping TraceOut 
calls in cases where the millisecond of performance was a concern, but haven't 
done so.  An obvious solution is to remove the trace statements, although I'll 
sorely miss them while debugging.  We could also leave them in and strip them 
before packaging, or we could move Lib.Traceout into Dom.Ext.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji
FourThought LLC, IT Consultants
uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com	(970)481-0805
Software engineering, project management, Intranets and Extranets
http://FourThought.com		http://OpenTechnology.org