> if you must have a system that parses XML but for company policy is not allowed to have even the means of performing a network request. With python you either have both xml and an http library and whatever else included and you will either have to do a special package with a striped down python+xml only or get a corporate exception. While on other languages you can install only the xml parser component package and your code will run happily and be compliant with company policy.

...wouldn't the company policy involve removing the means of performing a network request from the computer, making the notional capabilities of the software irrelevant?

Python will let you drive network requests through the OS. It's just that you wouldn't normally want to.