From: Sean Russell <ser@...>
Date: 2002-05-08T00:16:16+09:00
Subject: REXML progress report

This is a status report on REXML, and a rough timeline for the next couple 
of releases.

[This paragraph was quoted from a reply to another posting] The next major 
release of REXML will include a complete revamp of the Streaming APIs. I've 
gotten a lot of good feedback from various people, and have an idea of the 
direction I want to go in.  Also, the next version includes changes that 
should improve stream parsing efficiency for those people pulling streams 
over a non-closing network socket; Jabber, SOAP, XMLRPC, and so on should 
benefit from this.

I'm also hoping to include a complete DTD parser with REXML relatively soon.  
It /may/ also result in the next release of REXML being a fully validating 
parser, or at least well down that road, excepting bugs.  No promises here, 
but if I can get the DTD parser working well, validation shouldn't be a 
problem.  DTD has been difficult to work with, because there is no formal 
"spec" for it; the requirements are more or less scattered about within the 
XML spec.

I'm going to do some interim releases before the next major release.  Local 
entity declarations in the doctype will be handled -- this is the last 
issue that I am aware of that is standing between REXML and 100% XML 1.0 
conformance.  There are also a couple of bug fixes.

I've tagged 2.1.3 as 2.2.0, and that will become the "stable" release.  If 
you already have 2.1.3, *you do not need to download 2.2.0*.

2.2.1:  -130 (day of year)
        Bug fixes, some streaming improvemest
2.3.0:  -140
        Including Streaming API rework.  This will need a lot of testing
        and feedback, and the API may change.
2.3.n:  -160?
        Including DTD parser
2.4.0:  -170?
        Stable release

I may be starting a new job within the month, and this may interfere with 
the timeline.  Also, I'm giving myself two weeks for the streaming API, but 
I may have it done before then.  I'm not far enough into the DTD parser to 
honestly be able to say how long it'll take, so that's a really rough 
guess.

2.4.0 will be stable insofar as it will be at least as stable as 2.2.0, and 
streaming should be fairly stable by then.  DTD support will be at least as 
stable as it is now, but I don't expect to guarantee that validation (if 
working at all) or full DTD support will be stable.

As always, feedback and assistance is welcome.

--- SER