At the recent XML conference in Chicago, Tim Bray, one of the founders/editors of the XML specification, demonstrated XML::Parser, a new Perl module which enables Perl programmers to use XML for building applications and also provides an easy method of parsing XML document parts.

An interesting feature of Bray's demonstration was that the XML::Parser works as well on both Windows NT and Unix. Perl is known for its superior text processing capabilities, while XML is actually text which contains markup tags and structures. This new support by Perl for XML is a natural expansion of the capabilities of both.

At a past conference, O'Reilly & Associates hosted a meeting with Larry Wall, the creator of Perl and Senior Programmer with O'Reilly & Associates, and Tim Bray to discuss how Perl could potentially support XML. That meeting resulted in a plan to make Perl the "scripting language of choice" for processing XML. XML::Parser was the initial step towards that goal.

The XML::Parser for Windows is part of the ActivePerl package, available at the ActiveState Web site. The XML::Parser package for Unix is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network.