Quick Question: Expat vs LT XML

[winderjj]

Hi All,

I need everyones opinion. I am very new to XML but am temporarily putting all my efforts into using it. This is what I need to do.

Write an xml parser (in C) that will parse a fairly complicated XML file that is full of technical data(most scalar values). Then I need to store all the info in a C structure. Could some people give me their opinion. Which is better suited for this, Expat or LT xml?

I would also like to be able to validate the XML file against the DTD. Would one of these be able to do this? I noticed RXP might be good for this.

Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

 

[Richard Tobin]

winderjj wrote:

Write an xml parser (in C) that will parse a fairly complicated XML file that is full of technical data(most scalar values). Then I need to store all the info in a C structure. Could some people give me their opinion. Which is better suited for this, Expat or LT xml?

LT XML (which uses RXP as its parser) can read in XML either as "bits" or as a tree. If you want to convert it into your own C structure you will have to write code to traverse the tree (or build it from the bits).

Using RXP directly means using its rather unfriendly API (which is as it is for historical reasons). LT XML's API is nicer, but is in need of a clean-up. I hope to do an "LT XML 2" with a unified API for it and RXP, but I also hope to visit Mars some day.

I would also like to be able to validate the XML file against the DTD.

LT XML and RXP can both do DTD validation.

-- Richard

 

[Toni Uusitalo]

Hi All,

I need everyones opinion. I am very new to XML but am temporarily putting all my efforts into using it. This is what I need to do.

Write an xml parser (in C) that will parse a fairly complicated XML file that is full of technical data(most scalar values). Then I need to store all the info in a C structure. Could some people give me their opinion. Which is better suited for this, Expat or LT xml?

I would also like to be able to validate the XML file against the DTD. Would one of these be able to do this? I noticed RXP might be good for this.

Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

If you must validate, RXP/LT might be only choice for C, I'm not absolutely sure... check http://www.xmlsoftware.com/parsers.html for example.

You might also give a try to Parsifal if you don't need validation and can live with UTF-8/latin characters, API is somewhat easier to use than Expat.
JUdge for yourself.

Toni Uusitalo

 

[John Winderbaum]

THanks everyone. I really appreciate the feedback.

After posting that first message I made alot more progress. I did decide to use libxml for my parsing needs. I did some investigation of discoved the api is much more friends and there is some good documentation.

I also began to fool around with RXP. I finally got is to validate some simple XML files against a DTD. All I need is to run it before starting up my system. Just to validate the data.

thanks for the comments. Am I making sense?

 

[Toni Uusitalo]

If you must validate, RXP/LT might be only choice for C, I'm not absolutely sure... check http://www.xmlsoftware.com/parsers.html for example.

You might also give a try to Parsifal if you don't need validation and can live with UTF-8/latin characters, API is somewhat easier to use than Expat.
JUdge for yourself.

Toni Uusitalo

silly me, I forgot libxml! That must be the most active and forked XML api for C.

Toni Uusitalo