[XML-SIG] Pyxie

[Ken MacLeod]

Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net> writes:

> Ken MacLeod wrote:
> > 
> > The parsers on the Pyx site are expat and rxp ('xmln' and 'xmlv';
> > non-validating and validating, respectively), so they are fast and
> > small.
> 
> But you have to run them in a different process and use pipes and
> "double parsing." For a long time I couldn't understand why you
> would choose to do that and then I realized that the real reason is
> to allow Pyxie to use a pull model rather than a push model of
> parsing.
> 
> But Fredrick has shown that you can do pull parsing without a
> separate executable so I don't really see the benefit in pyx
> anymore. If you want a simplified XML interchange format, you might
> as well use canonical XML:
> 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-c14n

The number of XML questions I've seen answered with "here's how to do
that with PYX" using standard Unix CLI tools (grep, sed, awk, sh,
etc.) leads me to believe that there is, in fact, great benefit in
using the ESIS format directly for many tasks.  Canonical XML wouldn't
have that benefit because it still requires character based parsing,
whereas ESIS fits in nicely with Unix's line mode tools.

On the pull model, I realize it's not related to PYX or the API (per
se).

  -- Ken