Interesting link, thanks. I agree with the author: DOM and SAX are not that useful. The models are good, they are very helpful as references, put they are quite ugly and way too Java oriented to be really a good fit for other languages (mind you, even in Java, JDOM was created as "not-the-DOM"!).

The author is a Python guy and it shows though. XML::Grove is a million years old, and I would never, ever, recommend it. Although I can understand why XML::Twig (a good candidate, as he is talking about non-SAX / non-DOM APIs) would not appeal to a Python brain: there's too much in there, no orthogonality whatsoever, and a definite value put on convenience over elegance ;--)