##
13.6.3 minidom and the DOM standard

The `xml.dom.minidom` module is essentially a DOM 1.0-compatible DOM with some DOM 2 features (primarily namespace features).

Usage of the DOM interface in Python is straight-forward. The following mapping rules apply:

- Interfaces are accessed through instance objects. Applications should not instantiate the classes themselves; they should use the creator functions available on the `Document` object. Derived interfaces support all operations (and attributes) from the base interfaces, plus any new operations.

- Operations are used as methods. Since the DOM uses only `in` parameters, the arguments are passed in normal order (from left to right). There are no optional arguments. `void` operations return `None`.

- IDL attributes map to instance attributes. For compatibility with the OMG IDL language mapping for Python, an attribute `foo` can also be accessed through accessor methods `_get_foo()` and `_set_foo()`. `readonly` attributes must not be changed; this is not enforced at runtime.

- The types `short int`, `unsigned int`, `unsigned long long`, and `boolean` all map to Python integer objects.

- The type `DOMString` maps to Python strings. `xml.dom.minidom` supports either byte or Unicode strings, but will normally produce Unicode strings. Attributes of type `DOMString` may also be `None`.

- `const` declarations map to variables in their respective scope (e.g. `xml.dom.minidom.Node.PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE`); they must not be changed.

- `DOMException` is currently not supported in `xml.dom.minidom`. Instead, `xml.dom.minidom` uses standard Python exceptions such as `TypeError` and `AttributeError`.

- `NodeList` objects are implemented as Python's built-in list type, so don't support the official API, but are much more ``Pythonic.''

The following interfaces have no implementation in `xml.dom.minidom`:

- DOMTimeStamp

- DocumentType (added in Python 2.1)

- DOMImplementation (added in Python 2.1)

- CharacterData

- CDATASection

- Notation

- Entity

- EntityReference

- DocumentFragment

Most of these reflect information in the XML document that is not of general utility to most DOM users.