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<html>
<head>
<title>About SAXON</title>
</head>
<body leftmargin="150" bgcolor="#ddeeff"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<h1><big><big><font color="#FF0080">About SAXON</font></big></big></h1>
<p align="right"><big><big><font color="#FF0080">version 6.4.4</font></big></big></p>
<hr>
<p> </p>
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<td width="50%" bgcolor="#0000FF"><font color="#FFFFFF"><big><b>Contents</b></big></font></td>
<td bgcolor="#0000FF"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#0000FF"><font color="#FFFFFF"><big>On this page</big></font></td>
<td bgcolor="#0000FF"><font color="#FFFFFF"><big>On other pages</big></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td VALIGN="top" bgcolor="#00FFFF"><a HREF="#Scope">What is SAXON?</a><br />
<a HREF="#Installation">Installation</a><br />
<a HREF="#Support">Technical Support</a><br />
<a HREF="#Historical">Historical Note</a><br></td>
<td VALIGN="top" width="534" bgcolor="#00FFFF">
<a HREF="conditions.html">Conditions of Use</a><br>
<a href="changes.html">Changes in this release</a><br>
<a href="using-xsl.html">Using XSL Stylesheets</a><br>
<a href="xsl-elements.html">XSL Elements</a><br>
<a href="expressions.html">XPath Expression syntax</a><br>
<a href="patterns.html">Pattern syntax</a><br>
<a href="conformance.html">Standards Conformance</a><br>
<a href="extensions.html">SAXON Extensions</a><br>
<a href="extensibility.html">Extensibility mechanisms</a><br>
<a href="api-guide.html">Java API Overview</a><br>
<a href="samples.html">Sample applications</a><br>
<a href="suggestions.html">Future enhancement suggestions</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><i>Please note: a copy of the documentation on this site is also included in the download file.
On occasions the on-line version may be more up-to-date. The download file also includes full
API documentation, which is not present on the web site: see the doc/api directory.</i></p>
<table width="100%">
<tr><td bgcolor="#ff8888" align="center"><b>A D V E R T I S E M E N T</b></td></tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffff00" align="center">For comprehensive information about using XSLT<br>
see my book<br>
<b>XSLT Programmers Reference</b><br>
Second edition now available!<br>
Published by <a href="http://www.wrox.com/Consumer/Store/Details.asp?ISBN=1861005067">Wrox Press</a><br>
</td></tr></table>
<p><b>Release 6.4.4 is a maintenance release: it clears errors and updates the support for FOP
and JDOM to the latest versions.</b></p>
<hr>
<a NAME="Scope">
<h2>What is SAXON?</h2>
</a>
<p>The SAXON package is a collection of tools for processing XML documents. The main components
are: </p>
<ul>
<li>An XSLT processor, which implements the
Version 1.0 XSLT and XPath Recommendations from the World Wide Web Consortium, found at
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116">
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116</a> and
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116">
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116</a>
with a number of powerful extensions. This version of Saxon also includes
most of the new features defined in the XSLT 1.1 working draft.</li>
<li>A Java library, which supports a similar processing model to XSL, but allows full programming
capability, which you need if you want to perform complex processing of the data or to access
external services such as a relational database</li>
<li>A slightly improved version of the Ælfred parser from
<a href="http://www.microstar.com">Microstar</a>. (But you can use SAXON with any
SAX-compliant XML parser if you prefer).</li>
</ul>
<p>So you can use SAXON by writing XSLT stylesheets,
by writing Java applications, or by any combination of the two.</p>
<p><font color="#FF0080">If you are only interested in running the XSLT interpreter, on a
Windows platform, try <a href="instant.html">Instant
SAXON</a>. </font> At 400 Kb, this is a much smaller download; it excludes source code and API
documentation.</p>
<p>SAXON provides a set of services that are particularly useful when converting XML data into
other formats. The output format may be XML, or HTML, or some other format such as comma separated
values, EDI messages, or data in a relational database.</p>
<p>SAXON implements the XSLT 1.0 recommendation, including XPath 1.0, in its entirety.
SAXON also provides some XSLT 1.1 features, in particular:</p>
<ul>
<li>Support for multiple output files using xsl:document. (Saxon was the first processor
to provide this feature, which has now found its way into the latest W3C working draft.
The xsl:document
element replaces the saxon:output instruction offered in previous releases. The implementation
of xsl:document at this time is not 100% compliant with the draft XSLT 1.1 specifications).
</li>
<li>It allows multi-pass processing, by allowing result-tree-fragments to be used in
any context where a node-set can be used. (The saxon:node-set() extension function
is still available, but it is now superfluous.)</li>
<li>It supports XML Base, a facility which allows the base URI of an element to be defined
using an xml:base attribute.</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition, Saxon provides an extensive library
of <a href="extensions.html">extension elements and extension functions</a>,
all implemented in conformance with the XSLT 1.0 standard to ensure that
portable stylesheets can be written. These include the <a href="http://www.exslt.org/">EXSLT</a>
extension libraries <b>common</b>, <b>sets</b>, <b>math</b>, <b>dates-and-times</b>, and <b>functions</b>.
Many of these extensions were pioneered in Saxon and have since become available
in other products.</p>
<p>Saxon also includes a number of powerful extension functions that
go beyond EXSLT. Most of these rely on the concept of "stored expressions"
as an additional data-type: this allows an XPath expression to be constructed
at run-time from a string, and allows an expression to be passed as an argument
to a function (which in effect provides higher-order functions). This allows:</p>
<ul>
<li>distinct() to provide grouping capability on any calculated value</li>
<li>sum(), min() and max(), of any calculated value</li>
<li>expression() and evaluate() to allow an XPath expression to be constructed dynamically, passed
to the stylesheet as a parameter, or read from the source document.</li>
</ul>
<p>As a Java class library, SAXON gives you the ability to use the XSLT rule-based approach to
document processing, but with the flexibility of the full Java language. You can declare
handler classes to match particular patterns in the document, and can process arbitrary
sets of nodes selected using XPath expressions. This provides a high-level query capability which
you can mix with purely navigational access.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a NAME="Historical">Historical Note</a></h2>
<p>SAXON is essentially a one-man project: I have done almost all the development myself,
except for a small number of routines which I "borrowed" from other open source products,
and a few add-ons contributed by users.</p>
<p>I originally wrote SAXON to support an internal project in <a HREF="http://www.icl.com">ICL</a>,
and ICL continued to sponsor development of SAXON until my departure from the company
in January 2001. However, it has never been a supported ICL product. My new employers,
<a href="http://www.softwareag.com">Software AG</a>, are continuing
to sponsor the development of SAXON, but again without making it a corporate product.
There is no remaining connection with ICL, other than the fact the the Saxon web site
is hosted by iclway, which is a consumer ISP operated by ICL.
As always, the software is available entirely without support or warranty, and with
no commitments to any future releases.</p>
<p>The name SAXON was chosen because originally it was a layer on top of SAX. Also, it uses
the lfred parser (among others); lfred of course was a Saxon king...</p>
<p><small>I have been asked to point out that the product has no connection with a company
called <strong>SAXON Software</strong>. </small></p>
<hr>
<p>Please read the <a href="conditions.html">Conditions of Use</a>.</p>
<hr>
<a NAME="Support"><h2>Technical Support</h2></a>
<p>Saxon comes with no warranty and no formal technical support service.</p>
<p>If you have questions, however, you can usually get an answer by raising them on the Saxon
discussion list at <a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/saxon-help">http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/saxon-help</a>.</p>
<p>Once registered, you can post messages to <a href="mailto:saxon-help@lists.sourceforge.net">saxon-help@lists.sourceforge.net</a>.</p>
<p>If you hit something that looks like a bug, please check the known errors on
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/saxon">the Saxon project pages at SourceForge</a>.
Also check the list archives.</p>
<p>If the query relates to the XSLT/XPath language rather than Saxon itself, it is better to use
the <a href="http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/">XSL-list</a>: check first that the query
isn't already covered in the FAQ. Another useful site for XSLT information is
<a href="http://www.xslinfo.com">www.xslinfo.com</a></p>
<hr>
<A name="Installation"><h2>Installation</h2></a>
<p><font color="#FF0080">Existing users please see the file <a href=changes.html>changes.html</a> for
details of incompatible changes in this release.</font></p>
<p>The full SAXON distribution includes source and object code,
documentation, and <a HREF="samples.html">sample applications</a>.</p>
<p>Object code is issued as a JAR file, <b>saxon.jar</b>, which you must include on your class path.
<p>Saxon includes a built-in XML parser, but you can use it with a different XML
parser if you wish. To do this from the command line, specify the required parser using the
-x or -y options; from the Java API, set the name of the parser class as an attribute of
the TransformerFactory object. Saxon no longer uses the ParserManager.properties file
used with previous releases.</p>
<p>User documentation, covering both the XSLT and Java interfaces, is included in the download in the form
of extensive javadoc specifications. Be sure to read the package summaries, which give an overview
in the form of a user guide.
In addition there is an <a href="api-guide.html">introductory overview</a>.</p>
<h3>Prerequisites</b>:</h3>
<p>The following software must be installed separately, it is not included with the SAXON download.</p>
<ul>
<li>a Java development environment. SAXON has been tested with both SUN's and
Microsoft's Java compilers and VMs. The latest version was compiled using JDK 1.3. It
will run under JDK 1.1; however, the source will no longer compile under JDK 1.1.
Sun's JDK 1.3 implementation of Java runs Saxon at about three times the speed
of the Microsoft Java VM, especially with larger source documents.</li>
<li>SAXON has an option to pass the result tree to Apache's <a href="http://xml.apache.org/fop/">FOP
processor</a>, which is capable of generating output in PDF. Saxon is validated with
FOP version 0_20_1; it does not work with earlier releases.</li>
<li>SAXON has an option to work with a source tree constructed using
<a href="http://www.jdom.org/">JDOM</a>. Saxon is validated with
JDOM version 0.7; it does not work with earlier releases.</li>
</ul>
<p>SAXON comes with a bundled XML parser, a modified copy of the
<a href="http://www.microstar.com">Ælfred</a> parser, adapted to
notify comments to the application. SAXON has been tested successfully in the past with
Xerces, Lark, SUN Project X, Crimson, Oracle XML, xerces, xml4j, and xp. Use of a SAX2-compliant
parser is preferred, as SAX1 does not allow XML comments to be passed to the application.
However, SAXON works with either.
All the relevant classes must be installed on your Java CLASSPATH.</p>
<p>An interactive debugger for Saxon has been written by
<a href="mailto:edwin@pannenleiter.de">Edwin Glaser</a>. It is still at an
early stage of development. The software can be downloaded from
<a href="http://tbug.sourceforge.net"/>http://tbug.sourceforge.net</a>. It is
issued in tar/gzip format, but it can be unpacked on a Windows machine using WinZIP.</p>
<p>Because Saxon is run from the command line, you might find it useful (under Microsoft Windows)
to have a text editor
with better command-line support than the standard DOS window. I use <b>Programmer's File Editor (PFE)</b>,
a free product available from a number of download sites, for example
<a href="http://cdnet.softseek.com/Programming/Editors/Review_22841_index.html">softseek.com</a>,
and also <b>UltraEdit</b>, shareware available from <a href="http://www.ultraedit.com/">www.ultraedit.com</a></p>
<h3>Download</h3>
<p>An index of all currently-available versions of Saxon is on the home page at
<a HREF="http://saxon.sourceforge.net/">http://saxon.sourceforge.net/</a></p>
<hr>
<p align="center"><a HREF="mailto:mhkay@iclway.co.uk">Michael H. Kay</a> <br>
18 September 2001</p>
<p align="center">Personal home page: <a href="http://users.iclway.co.uk/mhkay/">http://users.iclway.co.uk/mhkay</a></p>
</font>
</body>
</html>
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