Dare is a parser that translates an Ixan document into a close semantic equivalent in XML called ix:ante.

Never heard of Ixan? See <http://ixan.halfgeek.org/> first.

Dare specifically refers to a parser that is intended for use as a proving ground for potential new features and concepts to be added to the Ixan specification. Fully clean, documented, and understandable code isn't the priority (though it's by no means frowned upon). Instead, the goal is to be able to add features without too much concern for stepping on others' toes. If a new feature proves particularly useful, it may be added to the specification, at which point it has a formal path into more well-defined implementations.

Dare is implemented as a Perl SAX2 driver. This means that, instead of directly producing output as an XML document, it produces a stream of events simulating a live parse of the equivalent XML. These events drive event-driven handlers that can filter, post-process, and output the document (see also <http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/KMACLEOD/libxml-perl-0.08/doc/sax-2.0.html>). A simple script included with the current distribution uses a trivial handler to convert the event stream directly to XML.

If you have a contribution to add, make sure that it has some sensible place where it might be added to the formal specification. If it does but you can't seem to get it added to the Perl code, consider bringing it up at the specification project instead (<http://launchpad.net/ixan>). If it does and you've added it and tested it fairly well, pass it our way along with a few example Ixan documents to demonstrate the concept. After that, we'll bicker about it for a while and it just may make its way into the formal spec. :-)