Perl and XML developers met to consider how to make Perl the scripting language of choice for processing XML. As Perl support for XML increases, it is expected to make XML more accessible. One of the summit group's first priorities is to get Perl working with Unicode (ISO 1046). Perl is currently the most popular technology for turning web pages into dynamic information applications. Easy-to-use, efficient, flexible and strong, the cross-platform programming language can run dynamic Web sites, databases, and CGI applications, perform system management tasks, and scan, extract information from, and print reports about text files.
Python already ships with an xmllib.py which is a non-validating XML parser module. Plans for the next version of Python are more extensive. Python is going to give Perl a real run for its money in this niche (although it doesn't support Unicode yet either).
ECMAScript (JavaScript) is a current and lightweight scripting language handled by a standards body. Further, you can get implementations on lots of platforms.
A mailing list has been created for discussing XML and Python, with the goal of developing a set of Python tools for processing XML documents. To join the list, you can use the Mailman Web interface at http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo/xml-sig. Or send an email with the word "subscribe" in either the subject line or the body of the message, to xml-sig-request@python.org . There seems to be a lot of interest in XML from the Python community, and development will probably be fast; prototype implementations of the Document Object Model (DOM) and Simple API for XML (SAX) already released.
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
