Re: Question on NSXMLNode and related classes

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 27 Aug 2009, at 18:43, Doug Simons wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Currently in GNUstep, the NSXMLNode class and its relatives have  
> been stubbed out but not implemented yet. Because of this our  
> application on Mac includes XML parsing and generating capabilities  
> that are missing from the Linux/GNUstep version. We would love to  
> add this functionality to the Linux version. Unfortunately, our  
> current development schedule won't give us a chance to devote any  
> large chunks of time to this until probably sometime next year.
>
> My question right now is a general one about where these XML classes  
> fit in the GNUstep list of priorities. Specifically, is anyone  
> likely to be working on them in the next few months? It will help  
> our planning and setting expectations with our customers.
>
> While we don't have time to do the implementation ourselves, we  
> would be very happy to help with testing and debugging. Our code  
> covers a substantial number of the methods in these classes, so I  
> think we can help ensure that at least the basic functionality is  
> all working the same as in Cocoa when the implementation gets to  
> that point.

I don't think they fit in the list of priorities at all ... mostly we  
add new stuff when people actually ask for it and are prepared to  
devote time to it, and do long term prioritisation of stuff on the  
basis of actual needs.

Historically GNUstep has been way ahead of OSX in XML support, as we  
had the GSXML classes long before OSX had any XML support, and we  
fully implemented Apple's NSXMLParser before Apple did!

Most likely, any functionality from the new XML classes is already  
available in the GSXML classes, so you might not need the new stuff.

All that being said ...

I've had quite a lot of experience implementing/using XML code, and  
i'd like to get those classes in place just for API completeness/ 
tidyness if nothing else.

The current stubs are designed on the assumption (based on Apple's new  
API) that Apple implemented their new classes on top of libxml2, and  
we might do the same.
However, Dr Nikolaus Shaller has done partial native objc  
implementations in his software, which we can incorporate into GNUstep  
if we want.

So ... if Apple did not wrap libxml2 (can you confirm that one way or  
the other) we could definitely adopt one of those two approaches ...  
and I ought to be able to find some time to work on it over the  
weekend and/or next week.

Can you provide a list of exactly what features you use?