rawhide report: 20050405 changes

[Konstantin Ryabitsev]

On Apr 5, 2005 12:28 PM, Dan Williams <dcbw at redhat.com> wrote:
> The point here is there is _already_ an XML parsing library in Fedora
> Core and most other distributions: libxml2.  That library has existed
> for quite some time as well.  We need to work on reducing duplicate
> functionality, not increasing it.  This is not Debian with 12000+
> packages, and they are unlikely to use yum at any point.  Fedora Core is
> attempting to reduce duplicate functionality at this time, and adding
> cElementTree doesn't help that goal.

Well, there are already xml parsing tools that come with python --
quite robust, too. Why special treatment for libxml2-python?
Everything that libxml2-python does can be achieved with standard
python modules, sacrificing speed and memory.

> If yum was already using libxml2, then it required more effort to switch
> to cElementTree. So why wasn't constructive work done to _improve_ the
> Python bindings for libxml2?  Is there a list of items that need
> improvement, and where are the bugs filed against libxml2 for each of
> those items?

Because it was a lot less effort to switch to cElementTree. Simple as that.
It would have taken a lot more effort otherwise. Is your time free?

> That said, anything that makes yum faster is good, but perhaps working
> with DV would help _all_ projects by improving libxml2, not just the
> quick solution of switching to cElementTree just for yum.

It's a quick and efficient solution. Like I have stated already
otherwise, my choice of APIs was a decision driven by simple logic and
immediate and obvious benefits.

Regards,
-- 
Konstantin Ryabitsev
Zlotniks, INC