[Biopython-dev] XML parsing library for new modules

[Brad Chapman]

Peter, Michiel and Eric;

> > Another thing to consider is what to do with the result
> > returned by ElementTree. Whereas it will contain all the
> > information in the XML file, it may not represent it in a
> > user-friendly way. You may want to take the output from
> > ElementTree and store it in a more biopython-like object.

Agreed. Most of the fun creative parts of the project, as opposed to
the parsing nuts and bolts, will be in developing the object
representations.

> > Also keep in mind memory usage: ElementTree will keep
> > the complete XML file in memory, whereas the SAX
> > parser gives you more flexibility here (see below).

ElementTree can do incremental parsing, so you can also deal with
large files using it:

http://effbot.org/zone/element-iterparse.htm

Brad