Just an update. I'm testing ns_xml 2.0 now, and will hopefully be able to release it as a beta in the next week or two. As far as other options go, I haven't had the chance to play with them. ns_xml was the closest thing to what I needed, was already embedded in the current version of OpenACS, and it was readily available. ns_xml 2.0 provides all of the basic tree manipulation functionality that I imagine a web developer needing (with the possible exception of on-the-fly DTD validation and manipulation of XSL - at least as anything of more semantic significance than the XML that it, by definition, is). Does anybody care to comment on the design? It seems to me that if you want relatively fast XML with XSLT and relatively robust tree manipulation, and if, like me, you want (or in my case need) it nowish, this is worth a look.
