[XML-SIG] The fastest XML parser around

[Andy Robinson]

> > (non-validating) minidom parser in the standard Python distribution.  It
> > also
> > comfortably beats the Microsoft and Java (Xerces) parsers in our tests.
>
>   Which are not the only parser out there. Libxml2 also ship with a Python
> interface as part of the recent releases and apparently also beats both
> Microsoft and Xerces (Java and C) parsers for raw parsing speed. So your
> claim is a bit "light". Libxml2 is also released under the MIT Licence
> making it suitable for any use.

Thanks, I genuinely did not know about this! I briefly reviewed
libxml some time ago but I think it was a different version under
a different license (or I may have assumed that anything with 'gn...'
was GPL).    I'll try to build it and assemble some benchmark data.
If we can get the same speeds AND validation from libxml2 without license
hassles, we could use it in our framework.

I submit that many others can't know about libxml2 either, as I've
had a fair bit of fan mail in the last few hours, and have personally
visited several Python firms who work extensively with XML and not heard
it mentioned. For me the 'end goal' would be to have a standard extension
module in the main Python distribution which did DOM, SAX, XSLT etc., all
at C-like speeds.  If libxml2 is a candidate, we should help you package it
and promote it a bit better :-)

- Andy Robinson