docs/readme.xml

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<s1 title='&ParserNameLong; Readme'>
  <s2 title='&ParserNameLong; &ParserVersion; Release'>
    <p>
      Welcome to the future! Xerces2 is the next generation of
      high performance, fully compliant XML parsers in the Apache
      Xerces family. This new version of Xerces introduces the
      Xerces Native Interface (XNI), a complete framework for
      building parser components and configurations that is
      extremely modular and easy to program. 
    </p>
    <p>
      The Apache Xerces2 parser is the reference implementation 
      of XNI but other parser components, configurations, and parsers
      can be written using the Xerces Native Interface. For complete
      design and implementation documents, refer to the 
      <link idref='xni'>XNI Manual</link>.
    </p>
    <p>
      Xerces2 is a <jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/#key-fullyConforming'>
	fully conforming</jump> XML Schema processor. 
      For more information, refer to the <link idref='xml-schema'>
	XML Schema</link> page. 
    </p>
    <p>
      Xerces2 also provides an <link idref='dom3'>experimental implementation</link> of the 
<jump href="http://www.w3.org/DOM/DOMTR#dom3">Document 
      Object Model Level 3 Core and Load/Save</jump> Candidate Recommendations and provides a 
      <link idref='faq-xinclude'>partial implementation</link> of the <jump href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xinclude-20031110/">XML Inclusions 
      (XInclude)</jump> W3C Working Draft in Last Call.
    </p>


    <p>Xerces2 is now able to parse documents written according to the
        <jump href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/PR-xml11-20031105/">
        XML 1.1 Proposed Recommendation</jump>, except that 
        it does not yet provide an option to enable normalization checking as described
        in section 2.13 of this specification.
        It also handles namespaces according to the 
        <jump href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/PR-xml-names11-20031105/">
        XML Namespaces 1.1 Proposed</jump> Recommendation,
        and will correctly serialize XML 1.1 documents if the DOM level
        3 load/save API's are in use.
    </p>


  </s2>
  <s2 title='Features of This Release'>
    <p>
      The &ParserNameLong; &ParserVersion; supports the
      following standards and APIs:
    </p>
    <ul>
      <li>
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/XML/'>eXtensible Markup Language</jump>
	(XML) 1.0 
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/PER-xml-20031030/'>Third 
	  Edition</jump> 
      </li>
      <li>
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/'>Namespaces
	  in XML</jump> Recommendation
      </li>
      <li>
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/DOM/'>Document Object Model</jump>
	(DOM) Level 2
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core/'>Core</jump>,
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Events'>Events</jump>,
	and
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Traversal-Range'>Traversal
	  and Range</jump> Recommendations
      </li>
      <li>
	<jump href='http://sax.sourceforge.net/'>Simple API for XML</jump>
	(SAX) 2.0.1
	<jump href='http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sax/sax2r2.jar'>Core</jump>,
	and
	<jump href='http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sax/sax2-ext-1.0.zip'>Extension</jump>
      </li>
      <li>
	<jump href='http://java.sun.com/xml/xml_jaxp.html'>Java APIs for 
	  XML Processing</jump> (JAXP) 1.2
      </li>
      <li>
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema'>XML Schema</jump> 1.0
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/'>Structures</jump>
	and
	<jump href='http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/'>Datatypes</jump>
	Recommendations
      </li>
      
    </ul>
  </s2>
  
  <s2 title='Backwards compatibility'>
    <p> According to the DOM Level 3 specification and 
      <jump href="http://www.w3.org/2000/11/DOM-Level-2-errata#core-26">DOM Level 2 errata
      </jump> the createElementNS and createAttributeNS methods convert empty string 
      namespaceURI to null. 
      Please, let us know if this change affects your application.</p>
  </s2>
  
  <s2 title='Changes from Previous Release'>
    
    <p>
      The &ParserNameLong; &ParserVersion; fixes bugs and adds the following functionality:
    </p>
    
    <ul>
       <li>Finalized XML Schema API (see <code>org.apache.xerces.xs</code>) and updated implementation accordingly.</li>
       
       <li>Implemented the following specifications:</li>
         <ul>
           <li>W3C DOM Level 3 "Core" and "Load and Save" Candidate Recommendations</li>
           <li>SAX 2.0.1</li>
           <li>W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1 Proposed Recommendation</li>
           <li>W3C Namespaces in XML 1.1 Proposed Recommendation</li>
         </ul>
    </ul>
    <p>
      
      For a more complete list of changes, refer to the 
      <link idref='releases'>Release Information</link> page.
    </p>	      
  </s2>

  <s2 title='Changes from Xerces 1.x'>
    <p>
      Xerces2 is a nearly complete rewrite of the Xerces 1.x codebase
      in order to make the code cleaner, more modular, and easier to
      maintain. It includes a completely redesigned and rewritten XML Schema validation engine. 

      Applications using only the standard interfaces such as
      JAXP, DOM, and SAX should not see any differences. 
    </p>
  </s2>
  <s2 title='License Information'>
    <p>
      The &ParserName; &ParserVersion; release is available
      in source code and precompiled binary (JAR files) form. 
      Both &ParserName; packages are made available under the 
      <jump href='http://xml.apache.org/LICENSE'>Apache Software
	License</jump>.
    </p>
  </s2>
</s1>