[XML-SIG] 4XSLT install problem

[Uche Ogbuji]

> G'day folks:
> 
> I have just uninstalled the default 4Suite RPM that came with RedHat 7.2 
> (version 0.11). It was working just fine, but as I'm trying to write an 
> article about using open source XSLT processors (xsltproc,Sablotron,4XSLT) on 
> the command line for batch transformations, I thought I'd better upgrade to 
> the latest version.

Very good thought, I'd say.


> I downloaded the source for 4Suite 0.12.0a3 and installed it using python 
> 2.1.1 to run setup.py (don't know if that is significant, but my RH 7.2 box 
> also has python 1.5.2 installed).
> 
> The install appeared to go fine, but now 4XSLT can't be invoked from the 
> command line as before. I get a "4xslt: command not found" message, although
> if I run "locate 4xslt", I am informed that it is located in
> 
> /usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/Ft/Share/Bin/4xslt
> /usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/Ft/Xml/Xslt/_4xslt.py
> /usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/Ft/Xml/Xslt/_4xslt.pyc
> 
> What am I doing wrong? Is this expected behaviour for the latest version? Is 
> this just a PATH issue?

It's just a path issue.  We had some discussion about this and decided that a 
*python* distutils (which are used to run "setup.py" is not the place to be 
intruding on the user's paths, or standard locations such as /usr/local/bin.

We decided to leave that to *distribution-specific* installers, which we have 
not had time to prepare :-).  It's not a trivial matter as one should probably 
really use autoconf to find out the appropriate place for the executables and 
all that, and I'm not sure on any clear science on mixing autoconf with 
distutils.  Actually, I'm not sure there's any clear science on autoconf at 
all ;-)

Anyway, the upshot of this is that we place the commands where you found 'em, 
and we advise people to copy or link those into locations on their paths, or 
to add that directory to their path.  See, for instance, section 4.3 of our 
UNIX install guide:

http://4suite.org/docs/howto/UNIX.xml

I would be grateful for any thoughts from folks about the best ways to make 
things even more convenient here, without falling into too much 
platform-specific madness.


> PS: While I believe that Python is a great language (I'm coming from PHP), I 
> find all the changes between Python1, Python2, and different versions of PyXML 
> and 4Suite etc to be very confusing. Is there somewhere that I can find a 
> coherent 'road map' to navigate through it all? Many books and tutorials on 
> Python/XML appear to contain outdated information and broken examples that no 
> longer work.

I think I have your antidote.  Start here:

http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/pyxml/

Some short-cuts for you based on your message:

http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/pyxml/choosing-software/
http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/pyxml/installation/
http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/pyxml/python-xslt/

The install guides on the 4Suite Web site are also up to date, and to be fair, 
they held the answer to your particular question:

http://4suite.org

See also my Python/XML column on O'Reilly:

http://www.xml.com/pub/q/pyxml

In which all discussion is up to date.  If you bought the O'Reilly Python & 
XML book, I devoted my most recent article in that column to updates of 
discussion and examples in the book

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/11/py-xml.html

See also

http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/pyxml/

I intend these Akara guides to be authoritative information entry points for 
all matters Python/XML, though I focus on PyXML and 4Suite for now.  I do 
carefully maintain these pages to be up to date.  I also intens that they are 
sources for more formal documentation ads development continues.

Certainly, if you have any further problems, just ask.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
A Python & XML Companion - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/11/py-xml.html
XML class warfare - http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=6965
MusicBrainz  metadata - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-thi
nk14.html