At the recent XML conference in Chicago, Tim Bray, one
of the founders/editors of the XML specification, demonstrated XML::Parser,
a new Perl module which enables Perl programmers to use XML for building
applications and also provides an easy method of parsing XML document parts.
An interesting feature of Bray’s demonstration was that the XML::Parser
works as well on both Windows NT and Unix. Perl is known for its superior
text processing capabilities, while XML is actually text which contains
markup tags and structures. This new support by Perl for XML is a natural
expansion of the capabilities of both.
At a past conference, O’Reilly &
Associates hosted a meeting with Larry Wall, the creator of Perl and
Senior Programmer with O’Reilly & Associates, and Tim Bray to discuss how
Perl could potentially support XML. That meeting resulted in a plan to make
Perl the “scripting language of choice” for processing XML. XML::Parser was
the initial step towards that goal.
The XML::Parser for Windows is part of the ActivePerl package, available at
the ActiveState Web site. The
XML::Parser package for Unix is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network.