diff --git a/pisi/xml/autoxml.py b/pisi/xml/autoxml.py
index 7b74d6e5..d1bc58dc 100644
--- a/pisi/xml/autoxml.py
+++ b/pisi/xml/autoxml.py
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ class LocalText(dict):
         assert self.tag != ''
         for key in self.iterkeys():
             newnode = newNode(node, self.tag)
-            newnode.setAttribute('xml:lang', key)     
+            newnode.setAttributeNS(None, 'xml:lang', key)     
             newtext = newTextNode(node, self[key])
             newnode.appendChild(newtext)
             node.appendChild(newnode)
@@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ class autoxml(oo.autosuper, oo.autoprop):
                     errs.append(_("autoxml.write: object validation has failed"))
                     raise Error(*errs)
                 errs = []
-                self.newDOM()
+                self.newDocument()
                 self.encode(self.rootNode(), errs)
                 if hasattr(self, 'write_hook'):
                     self.write_hook(errs)
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ class autoxml(oo.autosuper, oo.autoprop):
             return getNodeAttribute(node, attr)
         def writetext(node, attr, text):
             #print 'write attr', attr, text
-            node.setAttribute(attr, text)
+            node.setAttributeNS(None, attr, text)
         anonfuns = cls.gen_anon_basic(attr, spec, readtext, writetext)
         return cls.gen_named_comp(attr, spec, anonfuns)
 
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ class autoxml(oo.autosuper, oo.autoprop):
             if node and obj:
                 try:
                     #FIXME: this doesn't look pretty
-                    classnode = node.ownerDocument.createElement(tag)
+                    classnode = newNode(node, tag)
                     obj.encode(classnode, errs)
                     node.appendChild(classnode)
                 except Error:
@@ -684,7 +684,7 @@ class autoxml(oo.autosuper, oo.autoprop):
                 errs.append(where + _('Mandatory list empty'))
             ix = 1
             for node in nodes:
-                dummy = node.ownerDocument.createElement("Dummy")
+                dummy = newNode(node, "Dummy")
                 dummy.appendChild(node)
                 l.append(decode_item(dummy, errs, where + unicode("[%s]" % ix)))
                 #l.append(decode_item(node, errs, where + unicode("[%s]" % ix)))
diff --git a/pisi/xml/xmlext.py b/pisi/xml/xmlext.py
index e7133ba7..cfc0cde8 100644
--- a/pisi/xml/xmlext.py
+++ b/pisi/xml/xmlext.py
@@ -15,5 +15,8 @@ try:
     zimbabwe # comment out to disable piks
     from xmlextpiks import *
 except:
-    print 'xmlext: piksemel implementation cannot be loaded, falling back to minidom'
-    from xmlextmdom import *
+    try:
+        from xmlextcdom import  *
+    except:
+        print 'xmlext: cDomlette/piksemel implementation cannot be loaded, falling back to minidom'
+        from xmlextmdom import *
diff --git a/pisi/xml/xmlextcdom.py b/pisi/xml/xmlextcdom.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..15219b49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pisi/xml/xmlextcdom.py
@@ -0,0 +1,203 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2005, TUBITAK/UEKAE
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
+# the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
+# Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
+# any later version.
+#
+# Please read the COPYING file.
+#
+# Authors:  Eray Ozkural <eray@uludag.org.tr>
+#           Baris Metin <baris@uludag.org.tr
+#           Gurer Ozen <gurer@uludag.org.tr>
+#           Faik Uygur <faikuygur@gmail.com>
+
+"""
+ xmlext is a helper module for accessing XML files using
+ xml.dom.minidom . It is a convenient wrapper for some
+ DOM functions, and provides path based get/add functions
+ as in KDE API.
+
+ function names are mixedCase for compatibility with minidom,
+ an 'old library'
+
+ this implementation uses cDomlette from 4suite.org
+ adapted from the minidom implementation by Faik Uygur.
+"""
+
+import gettext
+__trans = gettext.translation('pisi', fallback=True)
+_ = __trans.ugettext
+
+import Ft
+from Ft.Xml.Domlette import implementation
+from Ft.Xml import ParsePath
+from Ft.Xml.Domlette import NonvalidatingReader
+
+import pisi
+
+class XmlError(pisi.Error):
+    "named this way because the class if mostly used with an import *"
+    pass
+
+# Document wrappers
+
+def newDocument(tag):
+    # create a document and return document root
+    doc = implementation.createDocument(None, tag, None)
+    return doc.documentElement
+
+def parse(filename):
+    # parse file and return document root
+    try:
+        doc = ParsePath(filename)
+        return doc.documentElement
+    except Ft.FtException, e:
+        raise Error(_("File '%s' has invalid XML: %s") % (filename, str(e)))
+
+def newNode(node, tag):
+    return node.ownerDocument.createElementNS(None, tag)
+
+def newTextNode(node, text):
+    return node.ownerDocument.createTextNode(text)
+
+# Node related wrappers
+
+def getNodeAttribute(node, attrname):
+    """get named attribute from DOM node"""
+    if not node.hasAttributeNS(None, attrname):
+        return None
+    else:
+        return node.getAttributeNS(None, attrname)
+
+def getChildElts(node):
+    """get only child elements"""
+    return filter(lambda x:x.nodeType == x.ELEMENT_NODE, node.childNodes)
+
+def getTagByName(parent, childName):
+    return [x for x in parent.childNodes
+            if x.nodeType == x.ELEMENT_NODE and x.tagName == childName]
+
+def getNodeText(node, tagpath = ""):
+    """get the first child and expect it to be text!"""
+    if tagpath!="":
+        node = getNode(node, tagpath)
+    try:
+        child = node.childNodes[0]
+    except IndexError:
+        return None
+    except AttributeError: # no node by that name
+        return None
+    if child.nodeType == child.TEXT_NODE:
+        # in any case, strip whitespaces...
+        return child.data.strip()
+    else:
+        raise XmlError(_("getNodeText: Expected text node, got something else!"))
+
+def getChildText(node_s, tagpath):
+    """get the text of a child at the end of a tag path"""
+    node = getNode(node_s, tagpath)
+    if not node:
+        return None
+    return getNodeText(node)
+
+def getNode(node, tagpath):
+    """returns the *first* matching node for given tag path."""
+
+    assert type(tagpath)==str
+    tags = tagpath.split('/')
+    assert len(tags)>0
+
+    # iterative code to search for the path
+    for tag in tags:
+        currentNode = None
+        for child in node.childNodes:
+            if child.nodeType == node.ELEMENT_NODE and child.tagName == tag:
+                currentNode = child
+                break
+        if not currentNode:
+            return None
+        else:
+            node = currentNode
+    return currentNode
+
+def getAllNodes(node, tagPath):
+    """retrieve all nodes that match a given tag path."""
+
+    #FIXME: better tag split
+    tags = tagPath.split('/')
+
+    if len(tags) == 0:
+        return []
+
+    nodeList = [node] # basis case
+
+    for tag in tags:
+        results = map(lambda x: getTagByName(x, tag), nodeList)
+        nodeList = []
+        for x in results:
+            nodeList.extend(x)
+            pass # emacs indentation error, keep it here
+
+        if len(nodeList) == 0:
+            return []
+
+    return nodeList
+
+def createTagPath(node, tags):
+    """create new child at the end of a tag chain starting from node
+    no matter what"""
+    if len(tags)==0:
+        return node
+    dom = node.ownerDocument
+    for tag in tags:
+        node = node.appendChild(dom.createElementNS(None, tag))
+    return node
+
+def addTagPath(node, tags, newnode=None):
+    """add newnode at the end of a tag chain, smart one"""
+    node = createTagPath(node, tags)
+    if newnode:                     # node to add specified
+        node.appendChild(newnode)
+    return node    
+
+def addNode(node, tagpath, newnode = None, branch=True):
+    """add a new node at the end of the tree and returns it
+    if newnode is given adds that node, too."""
+
+    assert type(tagpath)==str
+    tags = []
+    if tagpath != "":
+        tags = tagpath.split('/')           # tag chain
+    else:
+        addTagPath(node, [], newnode)
+        return node #FIXME: is this correct!?!?
+        
+    assert len(tags)>0                  # we want a chain
+
+    # iterative code to search for the path
+
+    if branch:
+        rem = 1
+    else:
+        rem = 0
+
+    while len(tags) > rem:
+        tag = tags.pop(0)
+        nodeList = getTagByName(node, tag)
+        if len(nodeList) == 0:          # couldn't find
+            tags.insert(0, tag)         # put it back in
+            return addTagPath(node, tags, newnode)
+        else:
+            node = nodeList[len(nodeList)-1]           # discard other matches
+    else:
+        # had only one tag..
+        return addTagPath(node, tags, newnode)
+
+    return node
+
+def addText(node, tagPath, text, branch = True):
+    newnode = newTextNode(node, text)
+    return addNode(node, tagPath, newnode, branch = branch)
diff --git a/pisi/xml/xmlfile.py b/pisi/xml/xmlfile.py
index bb58a4c5..529018c9 100644
--- a/pisi/xml/xmlfile.py
+++ b/pisi/xml/xmlfile.py
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@
 
 try:
     horagata # comment out to disable piks
-    from xmlextpiks import *
-    from xmlfilepiks import *
+    #from xmlfilepiks import *
 except:
-    print 'xmlfile: piksemel implementation cannot be loaded, falling back to minidom'
-    from xmlfilemdom import *
+    try:
+        from xmlfilecdom import *
+    except:
+        print 'xmlext: cDomlette/piksemel implementation cannot be loaded, falling back to minidom'
+        from xmlfilemdom import *
diff --git a/pisi/xml/xmlfilecdom.py b/pisi/xml/xmlfilecdom.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..aca65eed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pisi/xml/xmlfilecdom.py
@@ -0,0 +1,163 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2005, TUBITAK/UEKAE
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
+# the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
+# Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
+# any later version.
+#
+# Please read the COPYING file.
+#
+# Authors:  Eray Ozkural <eray@uludag.org.tr>
+#           Baris Metin <baris@uludag.org.tr
+#           Faik Uygur <faikuygur@gmail.com>
+
+"""
+ XmlFile class further abstracts a dom object using the
+ high-level dom functions provided in xmlext module (and sorely lacking
+ in xml.dom :( )
+
+ function names are mixedCase for compatibility with minidom,
+ an 'old library'
+
+ this implementation uses cDomlette from 4suite.org
+ adapted from the minidom implementation by Faik Uygur.
+"""
+
+import gettext
+__trans = gettext.translation('pisi', fallback=True)
+_ = __trans.ugettext
+
+import codecs
+
+import Ft
+from Ft.Xml.Domlette import implementation
+from Ft.Xml.Domlette import NonvalidatingReader
+from Ft.Xml import Parse, ParsePath
+from Ft.Xml.Domlette import Print, PrettyPrint
+
+import pisi
+
+class Error(pisi.Error):
+    "named this way because the class if mostly used with an import *"
+    pass
+
+class XmlFile(object):
+    """A class to help reading and writing an XML file"""
+
+    def __init__(self, tag):
+        self.rootTag = tag
+        self.newDocument()
+
+    def newDocument(self):
+        """clear DOM"""
+        self.doc = implementation.createDocument(None, self.rootTag, None)
+
+    def unlink(self):
+        """deallocate DOM structure"""
+        #del self.doc
+        self.doc = None # why?
+
+    def rootNode(self):
+        """returns root document element"""
+        return self.doc.documentElement
+
+    def readxml(self, path):
+        try:
+            self.doc = ParsePath(path)
+            return self.doc.documentElement
+        except Ft.FtException, e:
+            raise Error(_("File '%s' has invalid XML:") % (path, str(e)) )
+
+    def writexml(self, path):
+        f = file(path, 'w')
+        Print(self.rootNode(), stream = f)
+        f.close()
+
+    def verifyRootTag(self):
+        actual_roottag = self.rootNode().tagName
+        if actual_roottag != self.rootTag:
+            raise Error(_("Root tagname %s not identical to %s as expected") %
+                        (actual_roottag, self.rootTag) )
+
+    # construction helpers
+
+    def newNode(self, tag):
+        return self.dom.createElementNS(None, tag)
+
+    def newTextNode(self, text):
+        return self.dom.createTextNode(text)
+
+    def newAttribute(self, attr):
+        return self.dom.createAttribute(attr)
+
+    # read helpers
+
+    def getNode(self, tagPath = ""):
+        """returns the *first* matching node for given tag path."""
+        self.verifyRootTag()
+        return getNode(self.dom.documentElement, tagPath)
+
+    def getNodeText(self, tagPath):
+        """returns the text of *first* matching node for given tag path."""
+        node = self.getNode(tagPath)
+        if not node:
+            return None
+        return getNodeText(node)
+
+    def getAllNodes(self, tagPath):
+        """returns all nodes matching a given tag path."""
+        self.verifyRootTag()
+        return getAllNodes(self.dom.documentElement, tagPath)
+
+    def getChildren(self, tagpath):
+        """ returns the children of the given path"""
+        node = self.getNode(tagpath)
+        return node.childNodes
+
+    # get only elements of a given type
+    #FIXME:  this doesn't work
+    def getChildrenWithType(self, tagpath, type):
+        """ returns the children of the given path, only with given type """
+        node = self.getNode(tagpath)
+        return filter(lambda x:x.nodeType == type, node.childNodes)
+
+    # get only child elements
+    def getChildElts(self, tagpath):
+        """ returns the children of the given path, only with given type """
+        node = self.getNode(tagpath)
+        try:
+            return filter(lambda x:x.nodeType == x.ELEMENT_NODE,
+                          node.childNodes)
+        except AttributeError:
+            return None
+
+    # write helpers
+
+    def addNode(self, tagPath, newnode = None):
+        "this adds the newnode under given tag path"
+        self.verifyRootTag()
+        return addNode(self.dom.documentElement, tagPath, newnode)
+
+    def addNodeUnder(self, node, tagPath, newnode = None):
+        "this adds the new stuff under node and then following tag path"
+        self.verifyRootTag()
+        return addNode(node, tagPath, newnode)
+
+    def addChild(self, newnode):
+        "add a new child node right under root element document"
+        self.dom.documentElement.appendChild(newnode)
+
+    def addText(self, node, text):
+        "add text to node"
+        node.appendChild(self.newTextNode(text))
+
+    def addTextNode(self, tagPath, text):
+        "add a text node with given tag path"
+        node = self.addNode(tagPath, self.newTextNode(text))
+        return node
+
+    def addTextNodeUnder(self, node, tagPath, text):
+        "add a text node under given node with tag path (phew)"
+        return self.addNodeUnder(node, tagPath, self.newTextNode(text))
diff --git a/pisi/xml/xmlfilemdom.py b/pisi/xml/xmlfilemdom.py
index 322c3ced..1afd374f 100644
--- a/pisi/xml/xmlfilemdom.py
+++ b/pisi/xml/xmlfilemdom.py
@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@ class XmlFile(object):
 
     def __init__(self, tag):
         self.rootTag = tag
-        self.newDOM()
+        self.newDocument()
 
-    def newDOM(self):
+    def newDocument(self):
         """clear DOM"""
         impl = mdom.getDOMImplementation()
         self.dom = impl.createDocument(None, self.rootTag, None)
diff --git a/pisi/xml/xmlfilepiks.py b/pisi/xml/xmlfilepiks.py
index 721c1e90..19df6264 100644
--- a/pisi/xml/xmlfilepiks.py
+++ b/pisi/xml/xmlfilepiks.py
@@ -36,9 +36,9 @@ class XmlFile(object):
 
     def __init__(self, tag):
         self.rootTag = tag
-        self.newDOM()
+        self.newDocument()
 
-    def newDOM(self):
+    def newDocument(self):
         """clear DOM"""
         self.doc = newDocument(self.rootTag)