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I'd still like to know who is in charge of the etree package now. I know

that I'm not, so I just don't have any opinion on the technical question

of using the accelerator module (it sounds like a reasonable idea, but

it also sounds like something that may break existing code). If the

maintainer of the etree package would pronounce that it is ok to make

this change, I'd have no objection at all. Lacking a maintainer, I feel

responsible for any bad consequences of that change, which makes me feel

uneasy about it.

Martin, as you've seen Fredrik Lundh finally officially ceded the maintenance of the ElementTree code to the Python developers: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2012-February/116389.html

The change of backing ElementTree by cElementTree has already been implemented in the default branch (3.3) by Florent Xicluna with careful review from me and others. etree has an extensive (albeit a bit clumsy) set of tests which keep passing successfully after the change. The bots are also happy.

In the past couple of years Florent has been the de-facto maintainer of etree in the standard library, although I don't think he ever "committed" to keep maintaining it for years to come. Neither can I make this commitment, however I do declare that I will do my best to keep the library functional, and I also plan to work on improving its documentation and cleaning up some of the accumulated cruft in its implementation. I also have all the intentions to take the blame if something breaks. That said, Florent is probably the one most familiar with the code at this point, and although his help will be most appreciated I can't expect or demand from him to stick around for a few years. We're all volunteers here, after all.

Eli