Re: Tutorial Perl & XML

Why no mention of our friend Mr. XML::DOM? Do you still dislike him?

XML::DOM is the only Perl module I have ever used. Knowledge of the DOM is transferable to other languages and to other XML tools because DOM is an XML standard.

Comment on Re: Tutorial Perl & XML

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: Tutorial Perl & XML by mirod (Canon) on Jun 06, 2001 at 02:34 UTC
I do mention XML::DOM: Introduction to XML::DOM. I must say I really don't like it though. I don't think the DOM is the right level of interface for the kind of transformation people usually do with Perl. It is way too low-level to be used safelly. It was designed to be used in browsers, not for generic XML transformation. Typically a well-placed comment will break a DOM transformation written by somebody not too experienced with it. DOM level 2 has some additional features that make it safer, but the module implements DOM level 1. Plus the interface is extremely Java oriented... and ugly! As for the portability argument I don't buy it.Why should the availability of a painful way to process XML in Java force you to use something equally painful in Perl? I like Perl because of its compactness and DWIMness, the DOM is just the opposite.	[reply]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re: Re: Tutorial Perl & XML
by mirod (Canon) on Jun 06, 2001 at 02:34 UTC

I do mention XML::DOM: Introduction to XML::DOM.

I must say I really don't like it though. I don't think the DOM is the right level of interface for the kind of transformation people usually do with Perl. It is way too low-level to be used safelly. It was designed to be used in browsers, not for generic XML transformation. Typically a well-placed comment will break a DOM transformation written by somebody not too experienced with it. DOM level 2 has some additional features that make it safer, but the module implements DOM level 1. Plus the interface is extremely Java oriented... and ugly!

As for the portability argument I don't buy it.Why should the availability of a painful way to process XML in Java force you to use something equally painful in Perl? I like Perl because of its compactness and DWIMness, the DOM is just the opposite.

[reply]