[Bioperl-l] XML parser preference?

[Jurgen Pletinckx]

| I have no doubt that XML::LibXML is a great parser (I've used 
| it a few 
| times), the problem with it is that it runs on top of libxml2's C 
| library. On *nix systems it's fairly simple to have this dependency 
| compiled and running, but what about having it under other OS's
(e.g. 
| Windows)?
| 
| Introducing XML::LibXML as a dependency into the toolkit will 
| probably 
| place EUtilities as a module not usable by everyone, especially
those 
| who use BioPerl in a OS where installing/compiling C 
| dependencies can be 
| a headache.

Regarding XML::LibXML, there does appear to be an up-to-date ppm
package (which fetches libxml2.dll) at

http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/XML-LibXML.ppd

(and less than a week since the release of the corresponding 
version to cpan, too.)

So the threshold for distribution to Windows, at least, is less 
high than it might have been.

-- 
Jurgen Pletinckx
AlgoNomics NV