[XML-SIG] Major upcoming DOM changes in CVS

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

Last night I embarked on a fairly extensive restructuring of the
xml.dom.core module, to fix the outstanding problem with parent
pointers; there are many cases where the existing code is unable to
figure out the parent of a node.  This makes it difficult to walk from
a node back to the root, which is unfortunately just what's required
for implementing namespaces.

This restructuring has been tested, but it has the potential to
destabilize the DOM code, so I didn't want to commit it without
warning.  If you follow the CVS tree, be aware that the DOM might
become buggy with the next update that affects xml/dom/core.py..

On the other hand, for tonight I'm planning to finally work on a DOM
test suite, and hopefully the test suite will be comprehensive enough
to ensure that the code works reasonably.  I won't commit the changes
to core.py until I believe they're reasonably stable; that may be
tonight, or it may take until the weekend.

BTW, once the DOM code has settled down again, I'd like to implement
namespace handling for it, but I don't think anyone's proposed what
that interface should look like.  Anyone have suggestions?

Also BTW, check out LMG's plumbo.py module for finding circular
references; ooh, is it ever useful!

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
About ten days later, it being the time of year when the National collected
down and outs to walk on and understudy I arrived at the head office of the
National Theatre in Aquinas Street in Waterloo.
    -- Tom Baker, in his autobiography