4Suite / News: Recent posts

4Suite XML 1.0.2, an XML processing library toolkit for Python, is now available from Sourceforge and ftp.4suite.org. We recommend upgrade from all previous versions.

We've fallen behind in our release announcements on SourceForge; we missed announcing 4Suite XML 1.0 and 1.0.1. Changes since 1.0b3 are extensive: there are a year's worth of bug fixes, documentation improvements, and enhancements, including: Python 2.5 support; better packaging & installation (including more OS X fixes); PEP 302 support; more API conveniences; subclassable Domlette nodes; SaxPrinter; C14N; full support of EXSLT Dynamic, xml:id, getElementById(), and XPath's id(); correct handling of default namespaces in Ft.Xml.Domlette.ParseFragment and GetAllNs; improved behavior in the Python interactive interpreter; memory leak plugs; a fix for a longstanding bug affecting XPath comparison ops between a node-set and a boolean; better multiple interpreter support (which should help with mod_python); a bugfix affecting all extension functions in XPath/XSLT; elimination of a build error when Python is configured with "--enable-shared"; and fixed interaction between xi:include and xsl:strip-elements.

Today we release 4Suite XML 1.0 beta 3, now available from Sourceforge and
ftp.4suite.org.

As of the last release (1.0b2) 4Suite is split into three separate packages:

4Suite XML - XML, XPath, XSLT, related technologies and support libraries
4Suite RDF - RDF processing libraries and stand-alone DBMS
4Suite Repository - XML and RDF repository

This is a release of just the first component.

Highlights of changes in 4Suite XML since the last release
--... read more

Today we release 4Suite XML 1.0 beta 2, now available from Sourceforge and
ftp.4suite.org.

The most important development is that 4Suite is being split into three
separate packages:

4Suite XML - XML, XPath, XSLT, related technologies and support libraries
4Suite RDF - RDF processing libraries and stand-alone DBMS
4Suite Repository - XML and RDF repository

The main reasons for this split are

* The core XML libraries are much more mature than the rest of 4Suite,
and indeed have been 1.0 quality for a long time
* The size of the overall package gives pause to people who just want
a basic XML processing toolkit... read more

Today we release 4Suite 1.0 beta 1, now available from Sourceforge and ftp.4suite.org.

Highlights of changes
--

* Minor to huge performance increases throughout the core libraries:
* Ft.Lib.Set implemented in C, resulting in faster evaluation of XPath
expressions using '/', '//', and '|')
* 40x speedup in startup time for Domlette parsing
* Additional optimization of XPath expressions involving '/', '//',
'child::' and others
* .docindex removed from Domlette nodes; they now compare to each
other in document order (e.g., when in a list, .sort() can be called
for document order). Resulting XPath/XSLT speedup
* XSLT whitespace stripping optimized; xml:space handling fixed
* XML string utilities now in module Ft.Xml.Lib.XmlString,
implemented in C, as part of Domlette optimizations
* Mini-SAX interface added to the Domlette Expat library, via
Ft.Xml.Sax. The "mini" is due to the fact that only the interfaces
required for parsing XSLT stylesheets are exposed.
* XML catalogs and XSLT stylesheets now read via the fast mini-SAX API
* Many more Domlette speed and memory optimizations
* RDF core: various optimizations result in speedup of RDF completes and
faster database access
* RDF core: better Unicode handling; improvements to the way statements
are printed, compared, iterated over, reified, serialized/deserialized
* RDF core: optimized RDFS validation (90% speedup plus other
optimizations) plus updated to current standard
* XML core: Ft.Xml.MarkupWriter introduced--very friendly interface for
generating XML content based on the XSLT writers, but adding
convenience methods for common element creation patterns, and
for inserting chunks of "literal" markup
* XML core: FtMiniDom removed
* XML core: All dependencies on PyExpat removed
* XML core: Domlette nodes have new attributes:
* xpathNamespaces, a dict of in-scope namespaces
* xpathAttributes, the node's attributes, not counting
those for namespace bindings
* Environment variable XML_CATALOG_FILES now supported
* XPath: extension functions that access the underlying OS are now
disabled by default (e.g., f:spawnv(), f:system(), f:env-var())
* In Ft.Lib.Uri.OsPathToUri and UriToOsPath, attemptAbsolute now
defaults
to True
* XLink: xlink:show='replace' behaves more usefully & sensibly
* BerkeleyDB (bsddb) RDF and repository drivers added (Py 2.3+ only)
* MySQL RDF and repository drivers optimized
* Repository: XSLT DocDefs repository can now use extension
functions/elements
* Repository: better handling of external entity resolution
* Doc generation issues resolved. API docs can now be generated for
every module in 4Suite (various
* XHTML 1.0 Transitional DTD added to default catalog
* Many more bug fixes and enhancements. See also
http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/?
xslt=irc.xslt&date=2005-04-11#03:52:25... read more

Version 1.0a4 of 4Suite, a well-known XML and RDF processing toolkit for Python, is now available. See the full release announcement, including a summary of new features, at http://lists.fourthought.com/pipermail/4suite/2004-November/013064.html

4Suite 0.12.0a3 was released on Oct 1. 4Suite is a state-of-the-art XML processing and RDF-based knowledge management toolkit and development platform. It requires Python 2.1 or 2.2, and complements projects like PyXML and Zope. Docs still need work, but hey, it's an alpha. For more info, see http://4suite.org/

4Suite is a platform for XML processing and knowledge-management, consisting of a library of integrated tools for XML processing, and an XML data repository and server with a rules-based engine.

4Suite 0.12.0a2 ia available now from Sourceforge and ftp.4suite.org

ftp://ftp.4suite.org/pub/4Suite/

Questions about this alpha release should be directed to the 4Suite users list at http://lists.fourthought.com/mailman/listinfo/4suite... read more

Although it has been available at the main distribution site at ftp://ftp.4suite.org/ for a while, you can now download the Unix version of 4Suite 0.12.0a1 from the Files page here at SourceForge.

See http://4suite.org/ for the main project site, including downloads and documentation. This SourceForge presence is primarily for the use of the bug tracker.

They still haven't set up foursuite.sourceforge.net's DNS, but the project seems to be working now, at least.