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

[Andrew Kuchling]

[This is the last message I'll be cross-posting to both the Doc-SIG
 and String-SIG.  The Doc-SIG is "a forum for discussing both the form
 and content of Python documentation" (from Michael McLay's
 description) and not document processing in general, so I conclude
 that the String-SIG is more appropriate.]

Paul Prescod writes:
>be). Media loves a horse race and if we promote comparisons with Perl,
>people will at least know that Perl isn't the only language in the
>class. "We have nothing to lose but our obscurity."

	We also promote flame wars.  It's better to stand alone, and
to demonstrate how much simpler the job is in Python.

>I would say that instead of writing an XML parser in Python (probably
>not fast enough), or writing one from scratch in C (a bunch of needless
>work), we should start with James Clark's XMLTok, which is written in
>ANSI C. 

	Fred Drake just said much the same thing to me, but I'm
interested in pure Python processing for particular personal purposes.
I'd like to be able to do XML processing on various machines, from my
home machine to the ones at work to starship, preferably without
having to install C extensions or external SGML parsers.  Perhaps we
can follow string/strop's lead, and provide a Python version,
replacing it with a faster-but-compatible version if the C extension
is available.

>I think that JPython gets most of this for "free" with a very little bit
>of glue. All I need to do is document how to use the glue.

	So there's one deliverable.  Another deliverable: an XML-HOWTO
which provides an overview of Python and XML processing.  I'll happily
work on that.  Sean McGrath wrote about XMLTok:

>James has specifically designed it to be integrated into other
>applications. I do not think this would take very long and was
>hoping to have a shot at it myself:-( Volunteer C extension
>developers, please take one step forward.

	So that's probably another deliverable: a C interface to
XMLTok.  I just received Lars Marius Garshol's message; that code is
certainly going to be worth a look when it's released, and perhaps it
can be made to use XMLtok if available.

	The November issue of Linux Journal will be about Web
programming languages, and they've already agreed to one Python
article; another one about XML would probably interest them, too.
I'll commit to that as well.

Deliverables:

	* JPython glue and documentation
	* XML HOWTO
	* C interface to XMLTok
	* Code to parse a document and return a grove.
	* At least one magazine article about XML & Python.


A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.skyport.net/crew/amk/
What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all.
How true that is.
	-- J. Danforth Quayle

_______________
DOC-SIG  - SIG for the Python Documentation Project

send messages to: doc-sig@python.org
administrivia to: doc-sig-request@python.org
_______________