libxml usage

[Howard Butler]

Daniel and Assefa would need to comment on the actual implementation 
details of using libxml, but on IRC around the time of the SOS RFC, 
Sean and I suggested the use of an xml library for OxS output instead 
of using what we derogatorily call "libprintfxml" for this reason. 
The OGC services code is currently kind of hairy and scary to jump 
into, especially if you're looking to fix a little output thing or 
small logic bug here or there.  The use of something like libxml 
distills things down a little further and affords some additional 
flexibility that we might not have had without some additional heavy 
lifting.

I'd be interested in hearing Assefa's and Daniel's experience with 
libxml for the SOS development and how enthusiastic they might be 
about incrementally reworking other areas of the OxS code with it. 
I'd imagine it would be a somewhat long process, coinciding with 
revisions to OGC specs to justify the investment, but I am optimistic 
that the long term benefits would be there.

Howard

At 10:06 AM -0400 6/9/06, Kralidis,Tom [Burlington] wrote:
>Hi,
>
>For the OGC:SOS implementation in MapServer, we opted to use libxml as a
>means of outputting XML content, as opposed to msIO_printf.
>
>Just wondering if there is any comment w.r.t. moving towards libxml for
>more parts of MapServer.  This would definitely makes things more
>extensible and allow for more customized output.
>
>Comments?
>
>..Tom