Myhtmlex

Bindings for lexborisov's myhtml.

Thoughts

I need to a fast html-parsing library in Erlang/Elixir. So falling back to c, and to myhtml especially, is a natural move.

But Erlang interoperability is a tricky mine-field. This increase in parsing speed does not come for free.

The current implementation can be considered a proof-of-concept. The myhtml code is called as a dirty-nif and executed inside the Erlang-VM. Thus completely giving up the safety of the Erlang-VM. I am not saying that myhtml is unsafe, but the slightest Segfault brings down the whole Erlang-VM. So, I consider this mode of operation unsafe, and not recommended for production use.

The other option, that I have on my roadmap, is to call into a C-Node. A separate OS-process that receives calls from erlang and returns to the calling process.

Another option is to call into a Port driver. A separate OS-process that communicates via stdin/stdout.

So to recap, I want a fast and safe html-parsing library for Erlang/Elixir.

Not quite there, yet.

Status

Currently under development.