[XML-SIG] XML support in Python 1.6

[Fred L. Drake, Jr.]

  There are a few open issues with XML support in Python 1.6; these
need to be resolved.
  One is the pyexpat support; the Modules/Setup.in file used to
configure the set of modules built under Unix requires libexpat.a.
There's a note that this can be done manually until James Clark adds
it to the Unix build -- has *anyone* been in contact with James about
this?  Guido will not add the expat sources to the Python tree, since
that just creates maintenance headaches.  Paul, I expect you actually
know James; can you ask him about this?  I'd hate for all your work on
the module to go to waste!
  We also need to decide what sort of API we want to publicize as part
of the standard library -- SAX or SAX2?  Given the delay for Python
1.6, it probably makes sense to include a saxlib module that
implements SAX2.  Lars, does this still make sense to you?
  We also need to determine how Unicode should be supported; should
the parser always produce Unicode strings, or UTF-8, and provide a
wrapper that converts everything?  Since it appears likely that
auto-conversion between Unicode and narrow strings will likely only
work for 7-bit narrow strings, it may be reasonable to create Unicode
output directly from the parser (probably at the pyexpat level for
efficiency).
  Any other issues?  Comments?  Should we just drop Python 1.6 and
concentrate on Python 3000?  :)


  -Fred

-- 
Fred L. Drake, Jr.  <fdrake at acm.org>
PythonLabs at BeOpen.com