[XML-SIG] Re: Finding _xmlplus in Python 2.3a2

[Martin v. Löwis]

Martijn Faassen <faassen@vet.uu.nl> writes:

> Of course, but it would also simplify matters in development and
> deployment. 

It wouldn't simplify maintenance, though: Files that are now shared
identically between Python and PyXML now must be "nearly" shared:
Every reference to the package should then read "_xmlplus" for the
copy of the file in PyXML, and should read "xml" for the copy of the
file in Python.

It would also be an ongoing source of user confusion: Should I use
xml.dom.minidom, or _xmlplus.dom.minidom? etc.

> And I hope there can be some discussion of migration 
> strategies. You could for instance abandon the scheme in the next
> PyXML release, keep _xmlplus of the previous one installed if it's
> there, and point out to people that in order to use PyXML from now on
> they have to explicitly refer to the pyxml namespace. You could even
> provide a migration hack where people can explicitly enable pyxml to
> be picked up in the traditional way.

Please be aware that there is *a lot* of code out there that is still
in use but unmaintained. We still get questions from people using code
written for PyXML 0.5, with API that went away in PyXML 0.6. Somebody
has to port this code, but nobody can, as the original author lost
interest.

Regards,
Martin