Xee is a new XPath and XSLT engine written in Rust, focusing on performance, security, and WebAssembly compatibility. It aims to be a modern alternative to existing engines, offering a safe and efficient way to process XML and HTML in various environments, including browsers and servers. Leveraging Rust's ownership model and memory safety features, Xee minimizes vulnerabilities like use-after-free errors and buffer overflows. Its WebAssembly support enables client-side XML processing without relying on JavaScript, potentially improving performance and security for web applications. While still under active development, Xee already supports a substantial portion of the XPath 3.1 and XSLT 3.0 specifications, with plans to implement streaming transformations and other advanced features in the future.
The blog post "Xee: A Modern XPath and XSLT Engine in Rust" by Startifact announces and details their newly developed XPath 3.1 and XSLT 3.0 engine written in Rust. The post emphasizes the performance benefits gained from using Rust, highlighting its memory safety and speed. Xee is designed to be embeddable in other applications, providing a robust and efficient way to process XML documents.
The authors explain their motivations for creating Xee, citing the limitations and complexities of existing XPath and XSLT engines, particularly in regard to integration with modern software development practices. They sought a solution that was fast, reliable, and easily integrated into their own projects and those of other developers. Rust, with its focus on performance and safety, emerged as the ideal language for this undertaking.
The post delves into some of the technical challenges faced during the development process, such as efficiently managing string handling, optimizing numerical computations relevant to XPath, and the complexities of implementing the complete XPath and XSLT specifications. It also highlights the advantages of using Rust's ownership and borrowing system for memory management, leading to fewer memory leaks and a more predictable runtime behavior compared to engines written in languages with garbage collection.
Furthermore, the post showcases Xee’s performance benchmarks, demonstrating significant speed improvements compared to established XPath and XSLT engines like libxslt and Saxon-HE. These benchmarks involved various common XPath and XSLT operations, illustrating Xee’s efficiency in handling diverse processing tasks.
The post also touches upon the API design of Xee, emphasizing its ease of use and integration within Rust projects. They provide code examples demonstrating how to evaluate XPath expressions and apply XSLT stylesheets using Xee. This ease of integration is a key selling point, allowing developers to seamlessly incorporate XML processing capabilities into their applications.
Finally, the post concludes with a look towards the future of Xee, outlining plans for further development and improvements. This includes potential features such as schema validation, streaming transformations for large XML documents, and further performance optimizations. The authors express their enthusiasm for community involvement and contributions to the project, inviting developers to explore and utilize Xee in their own work. They position Xee not just as a Startifact project, but as a potential key component in the broader ecosystem of XML processing tools.
Summary of Comments ( 16 )
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43502291
HN commenters generally praise Xee's speed and the author's approach to error handling. Several highlight the impressive performance benchmarks compared to libxml2, with some noting the potential for Xee to become a valuable tool in performance-sensitive XML processing scenarios. Others appreciate the clean API design and Rust's memory safety advantages. A few discuss the niche nature of XPath/XSLT in modern development, while some express interest in using Xee for specific tasks like web scraping and configuration parsing. The Rust implementation also sparked discussions about language choices for performance-critical applications. Several users inquire about WASM support, indicating potential interest in browser-based applications.
The Hacker News post discussing Xee, a modern XPath and XSLT engine written in Rust, has generated several comments exploring various aspects of the project.
Several commenters express enthusiasm for the project, particularly praising its performance. One user highlights the speed improvements observed in their own testing, emphasizing the significance of a faster XSLT engine for their workflow. Another commenter points out the potential benefits of Rust's memory safety features for preventing crashes and improving the overall reliability of the engine. The choice of Rust itself is lauded, with several comments mentioning its growing popularity and suitability for tasks demanding performance and safety.
Some discussion revolves around the complexities of XPath and XSLT, acknowledging their power while also noting the steep learning curve. One commenter mentions their infrequent use of these technologies, expressing interest in revisiting them with a tool like Xee. Another points to the niche nature of XSLT, suggesting its relevance primarily within specific industries or for particular tasks like XML transformations.
A few comments delve into technical details. One user asks about the engine's handling of extensions, a crucial feature for extending the functionality of XPath and XSLT. Another inquires about the implementation of the
document()function and its behavior. The creator of Xee actively participates in the thread, responding to these technical queries and providing insights into the project's design choices and future plans. They discuss the challenges of supporting extensions and outline potential approaches for implementing them.The conversation also touches on alternative XPath and XSLT engines, with mentions of Libxml2 and Saxon. Comparisons are drawn in terms of performance and features, highlighting Xee's potential advantages in certain areas.
Overall, the comments reflect a positive reception towards Xee. Commenters express interest in its performance gains and the potential of Rust for creating robust and efficient XML processing tools. The discussion also acknowledges the complexities of XPath and XSLT, and explores technical nuances of the engine's implementation and its place within the existing ecosystem of XML processing tools.