This session explores Orchard, the technology underlying a new family of high performance modules for Perl-XML and Python-XML systems. Attendees will learn about Orchard's use of pre-processed C, called Mostly-C (MOC), that Orchard is not limited to use for XML modules (despite having a built-in XML parser), and that MOC provides a simple to use object attribute accessor syntax for programming object oriented "XS" modules in Perl.

It features dynamic method dispatch, garbage collection using Boehm GC, transparent interface to the host language (Perl and Python currently, with Ruby planned), XML-style namespaced attributes and method names. Orchard still retains all the features of C for those who need them. As a bonus, MOC files written for Perl work with the Python interface too.