I was looking at the POD in XML/Fling.pm and thinking to myself… that really isn't such a great solution.
There's a new module on CPAN called XML::Genx, which is based on Genx, Tim Bray's library for generating XML.
Genx is a library, written in the C language, for generating XML. Its goals are high performance, a simple and intuitive API, and output that is guaranteed to be well-formed; […] Latest news: In production, carrying hundreds of thousands of subtitles per day; thinking of taking off the “beta” stamp.
Of course, the question is, how many places in the PM codebase use XML::Fling currently? If there are many, migrating directly will be a pain. However, it should be possible to rewrite XML::Fling as a thin wrapper around XML::Genx. Another simpler option might be to just start using them in parallel, going back through old tickers as tuits permit.
I'm making this proposition because I'm pretty sure that Genx will be both safer to use and faster than even Fling. I haven't benchmarked anything yet, but I wanted to know there's any interest before I sink any time into that.
Makeshifts last the longest.