[XML-SIG] DOM and Proxies

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

Paul Prescod writes:
>Opinions? I would actually sneak this class into a C-coded minidom
>library (built directly on top of expat) for use by anyone who knows it
>is there.

Open question: is the proxy mechanism still useful if a garbage
collection mechanism for collecting cycles gets into 1.6?  (Neal
Schemenauer is working on something, but it's too early to tell if
it'll get into 1.6; perhaps the cost will be too high.)

If cyclic trash was collected, would you still need a proxy mechanism?
Maybe you'd use it for performance reasons, to save the GC some work,
making less trash for it to scan through, but then you're losing a
tiny bit of performance from the extra indirection on every access to
the object.  My concern is simply to avoid spending time building
something that turns out to be unneeded.

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
    "What's that awful noise?"
    "I beg your pardon... "Awful noise"? A good way to talk about my singing!"
    "No, Doctor, not that awful noise -- the other one!"
    -- Barbara and the Doctor, in "The Chase"