[DOC-SIG] What does this mean for Python?

[Paul Prescod]

http://www.perl.com/perl-xml.html
----
How to Make Perl The Language of Choice for XML

Perl has been the language of choice for anyone doing serious text
processing. Now efforts are underway to make Perl the language of choice
for those doing "structured" text processing using the Extensible Markup
Language (XML). 

 The XML 1.0 specification was recently (Feb. 10, 1998) released as a
recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium. XML is a subset of SGML
(Standard Generalized Markup Language) and it seems to be emerging as a
universal syntax for defining non-proprietary document markup and data
formats. XML made significant changes to SGML to reflect the nature of
the Web and to make it easier to build tools that process XML. 

Tim Bray, co-editor of the XML 1.0 specification, has used Perl
extensively for huge text processing applications. He had a special
interest in seeing a bridge built from Perl to XML -- one that would
make it simple for programmers to process XML data. So, out of this
interest, a small group of developers met at O'Reilly & Associates in
Sebastopol, California for a one-day Perl/XML summit. In addition to
Tim, those attending the summit were: 

	Larry Wall, creator of Perl, and senior developer, O'Reilly &
Associates 
	Dick Hardt, developer of Perl for Win 32, and Chief Technology Officer,
ActiveState
                              Tool Corp. 
	Tim O'Reilly, President and CEO, O'Reilly & Associates 
	Dale Dougherty, CEO, Songline Studios 
	Gina Blaber, Director, Software Products Group, O'Reilly & Associates. 

"In the design of XML, we were continuously mindful of the need to
enable the fast, efficient creation of scripts and programs for
processing XML," says Tim Bray.
----
My commentary:

Perl has nothing to recommend it over Python right now. In fact this
February's Dr. Dobbs already has an article on Python and XML. The only
snag is Unicode support. Perl doesn't have Unicode support but Larry has
promised it.

"One of the summit group's first priorities is to get Perl working with
Unicode (ISO 1046).  Unicode enables code to be easily translated into
other languages; XML requires Unicode. Larry Wall will lead the team
working on this task."

Many people equate CGI and Perl. I would hate to see that happen with
XML and hope I can help to stop that from happening. In the short term,
I will integrate JPython with a Java XML parser and write a tutorial on
how to use that (JPython inherits Unicode support from Java, right?).

 Paul Prescod  - http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

Can we afford to feed that army, 
 while so many children are naked and hungry?
Can we afford to remain passive, 
 while that soldier-army is growing so massive?
  - "Gabby" Barbadian Calpysonian in "Boots"

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