eXist

In response to my own question about whether tools existed for pure, end-to-end XML-based web applications (the fact that I wanted a Java impl should have been implicitly understood ), the answer is apparently yes.

eXist Open Source Native XML Database can be used for just this purpose, and for free.

Ken suggested 4Suite which is a great suggestion… except for the fact that Java is far ahead of Python in number and quality of both XML and web application tools. Especially XML (and XQuery) tools. 4Suite looks fantastic, and I know it is very highly regarded, but Java is the clear choice here.

I’ll be using eXist soon… I’ll post thoughts later.

Update: An open source (LGPL, BTW) project with good (attractive, even) documentation! Woah.