[Xapian-discuss] FAQ page about python wrappers

[Olly Betts]

On Fri, Jul 04, 2008 at 07:42:10PM +0100, Richard Boulton wrote:
> I've added an entry to the FAQ about the many Python wrappers now 
> available for Xapian, in an attempt to help new users work out which 
> Python interface to Xapian would be sensible for them to use.
> 
> It's at http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/FAQ/PythonWrappers and could do with 
> having some information on ore.xapian and mbxap added.  Also, if you 
> know of any Python wrappers around Xapian which aren't listed there, 
> please add them (or reply to this message with details).

I thought "ore.xapian" was really a "Xapian plugin for Zope" (though I
could well have misunderstood), which seems to put it in a slightly
different category - more like djapian in concept, but for Zope not
Django:

http://code.google.com/p/djapian/

If I'm right, we should probably list both or neither.

Also, perhaps the split should be three-way - something like:

* definitely maintained
* doesn't seem very actively maintained
* explicitly orphaned/deprecated or doesn't work with xapian 1.0

No visible project activity for 6 months or so isn't a great sign, but
it might just mean that it works perfectly with the current stable
branch of Xapian - that's very different to "definitely avoid using
this".

> I have a feeling there might be a similar number of PHP wrappers around 
> out there, but I haven't used them - if there are, it would be great if 
> someone could start a FAQ/PhpWrappers page listing them...

I don't think it's anything like as complex.  The only live contender
I'm aware of is "our" PHP bindings.  There were two PHP5 OO wrappers
around the then flat function interface back in April 2006, but I
worked with the authors to fold their changes into our bindings, via
enhancing SWIG to generate PHP5 OO wrappers.  I don't think either of
these has the web presence that some of the Python alternatives do.

Has anyone actually wanted to use Xapian with PHP and thought there was
a choice of PHP bindings?  If so I could add such an FAQ page.
Otherwise, it seems a bit silly to write FAQ entries - the topic would
be none of "frequently", "asked", or "question"!

Cheers,
    Olly