[XML-SIG] Expat as xmllib

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

Paul Prescod writes:
>Without any xmllib-specific optimization, pyexpat runs almost as fast as
>sgmlop:
>raw sgmlop: 13222 items; 0.426 seconds; 1281.29 kbytes per second
>fast xmllib: 13222 items; 1.445 seconds; 378.03 kbytes per second
>slow xmllib: 13222 items; 6.651 seconds; 82.11 kbytes per second
>pyexpat: 13210 items; 1.527 seconds; 357.68 kbytes per second
>I can think of several optimizations that could speed it up quite a bit.

21K/sec difference, or around 6% slower; very good.  Let's discuss
these optimizations at IPC8; I'd like to get a version of this into
the CVS tree ASAP.

>Also if you compare it to the xmllib in the standard distribution, we
>are talking night and day so if we bundle expat we're only improving
>things for them.

Note that the xmllib in 1.5.2 and xml.parsers.xmllib are different;
namespace support has been added to the 1.5.2 version.  This is a
divergence that's needed fixing for a while, and now seems like a good
opportunity..

Is Expat becoming a fairly common component of Linux and *BSD
distributions?  I still dislike the idea of adding Expat to the Python
distribution, because of possible collisions with updated versions of
Expat.

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
And at times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest,
and you will weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on.
    -- From SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"