[Cython] XSLT based optimisation

[Robert Bradshaw]

On Mar 9, 2008, at 5:40 AM, Stefan Behnel wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Robert Bradshaw wrote:
>> Speaking specifically of XSLT, in your framework it would be possible
>> to write a Transform that dumps out the tree as XML (like your
>> printer, but fancier), runs some XSLT on it, then reads it back in.
>> Most of my personal experience with XML has been unimpressive
>> (usually 'cause it's way to bloated of a tool than needed for the
>> task at hand, and slow).
>
> Hmm, slow, is it? Tried lxml lately?

:-). No, actually most of my excursions into XML were a long time  
ago, with Java and PHP, and for tasks better suited to a SQL database  
rather than a huge XML file. Being the wrong tool for the job left a  
bad taste in my mouth, but that's not the fault (I'm willing to  
believe) of XML.

> It's actually a funny idea to optimise code with a tool that is  
> itself written
> in the compiled language. That way, lxml would basically optimise  
> itself. :)
>
> Also, you could easily represent the parse tree in custom classes  
> in lxml
> (although not the ones that Cython currently uses). And, lxml now has
> XSLT extension elements, meaning, you can write your own XSLT  
> commands in
> Python and do stuff that you can't do in XSLT in plain Python code,  
> like
> calculating static expressions, for example. How is that for a tool?

If we decide to use XML/XSLT, lxml certainly seems like the fitting  
tool :).

- Robert