Okay, enough. This thread derail ends now. Shlomi, Rob, if you feel you need to continue this discussion in front of witnesses, feel free to continue CCing me on your private discussion -- but leave perl-beginners out of it.
This type of nitpicking and sniping back and forth does not foster a welcoming atmosphere for newbies on this list. Please refrain from starting these types of derails in the future. john, aka perl-beginners list mom. On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Rob Dixon <rob.di...@gmx.com> wrote: > On 23/07/2013 19:00, Shlomi Fish wrote: >> >> >> Why do you feel that I've been "promoting" XML::LibXML in this thread? > > > Because you say > >> Instead one should use [XML::LibXML] > > > I call that promotion. > > >> Why does the fact that I'm affiliated with it, prevent me from >> recommending it over a different alternative, which I believe (and >> can prove) that is inferior? > > > Because it is all but impossible for you to be impartial with your > recommendations when you have a specific interest in one of the > alternatives. > > >>> If you insist on doing so anyway then I wish you would make your >>> declarations a *lot* more prominent, i.e. the *first* thing you say >>> in your post, rather than a subsidiary clause in a secondary >>> paragraph. >> >> >> Why do you feel I should do so? What was wrong with the disclaimer as >> it stood? > > > Because I missed it the first time I read your post, so it isn't > unlikely that others would also overlook it. > > >>> I try to avoid recommending XS-based modules when I sense that the OP >>> may have trouble digging himself out of a hole when a CPAN module has >>> failed to install. >> >> >> Well, XML::XPath depends on XML::Parser which is an XS module (and not a >> core >> one) > > > This is one of those "facts" that I thought I had once established for > certain and have never looked at again. I am grateful to be corrected. > > However, I believe the XS component of XML::LibXML relies, in turn, on > the libxml2 library, which also needs compiling and linking. With yet > another process involved in installing the module I am still hesitant to > recommend (although I have the highest regard for Libxml2 itself). > > >>> XML::XPath works fine here. It is plenty fast enough, >>> and the data doesn't use namespaces. You have no reason to disparage it. >> >> >> The original poster may need to use namespaces, and he may run into a bug >> that >> has crept in XML::XPath since its last release in 2003, and the data may >> be >> larger than you are trying it on. As a result, I can no longer recommend >> it in >> the general case. > > > In my original answer I wrote > > >> This program shows just how easy it is to use `XML::XPath`. There are >> several other modules that will do the job if this one isn't to your >> taste. > > > So I hope I wasn't understood to be recommending XML::Xpath in the > general case. In part I was trying to give another module some exposure, > when the limelight is usually shared between XML::LibXML and XML::Twig. > It certainly works fine with the data in question and I would not choose > to avoid it just because of its age when I know that there are many > instances of much older installations of Perl itself. There are many > examples of much less satisfactory modules, such as the dreadful but > still-popular XML::Simple which was updated just a year ago. > > I hope this clarifies my standpoint. > > Rob > > > > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org > For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org > http://learn.perl.org/ > > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
