Myhtmlex

Bindings for lexborisov's myhtml.

• Available as a hex package: {:myhtmlex, "~> 0.1.0"}
• Documentation

Example

iex> Myhtmlex.decode("<h1>Hello world</h1>")
{"html", [], [{"head", [], []}, {"body", [], [{"h1", [], ["Hello world"]}]}]}

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.

Development

• Please make sure you do git submodule update after a checkout/pull

Status

Currently under development.

• Parse a HTML-document into a tree
• Expose node-retrieval functions
• Investigate safety and calling options
  • Call as dirty-nif
  • Call as C-Node (check branch c-node)
  • Call as Port driver