[Python-Dev] Doc suggestion for Elementtree (for 2.5? a bit late, I know...) (original) (raw)

Paul Moore p.f.moore at gmail.com
Mon Aug 28 12🔞38 CEST 2006


One little addition to the elementtree docs. In the overview section, adding a paragraph explaining best practice for importing the module might be useful.

Some suggested text, for the "overview" section:

""" The ElementTree module comes in two forms - a pure-python version (xml.etree.ElementTree) and a C-coded implementation (xml.etree.cElementTree) which is faster. To import the faster code if possible, but fall back to the Python implementation, you can use

try: from xml.etree import cElementTree as ET except ImportError: from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET

ElementTree is also available as an external module for older Python versions. For portability to these versions, this pattern can be extended to

try: from xml.etree import cElementTree as ET except ImportError: try: from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET except ImportError: try: import cElementTree as ET except ImportError: import ElementTree as ET

"""

I'd put a patch on SF, but guess what? It's down again :-(

Paul.

PS This actually begs the question - are there platforms where xml.etree.cElementTree is not available? If not, is there a need for both versions? If there are, the wording above should probably be modified to reflect this.



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