Parsing and Serializing XML Is (Still) a Pain in the Neck

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It’s 2025, and I still can’t believe I have to say this — but handling XML, especially in Python, remains frustratingly painful.

Take this example: For the upcoming podcast feature of poketto.me, the app will generate a personalized podcast feed for each user, populated with text-to-speech versions of their saved content. Users can subscribe to their custom feed in any podcast app—pretty handy.

The feed itself isn’t complex: just an XML file hosted on a web server (in my case, a GCS bucket) containing metadata and links to episode MP3s. It just needs to comply with Apple’s Podcast RSS Feed Requirements so podcast clients can parse it correctly.
Sounds simple, right?

Xml on Build in Public

Parsing and Serializing XML Is (Still) a Pain in the Neck