xml-dev - Re: XML Parsers for Java -- Recommendations?

[David Brownell <david-b@pacbell.net>]

Kay Michael wrote:
> 
> > Have a look at the parser conformance test results on my web page at
> >
> >       http://home.pacbell.net/david-b/xml/
> >
> I only see the conformance tests there, not the results.

Scroll down a bit to the list of parsers.  At this point there
are results for most of the SAX parsers I know about.  I just
updated this; maybe that page will be easier to navigate.

    Nonvalidating
	- Sun TR2 (SAX2 wrapper)
	- XP 0.5
	- Lark 1.0beta
	- Oracle 2.0.0.2 (SAX2 wrapper)
	- IBM 2.0.15
	- AElfred 1.2a (SAX2 wrapper)
	- Silfide 0.88, a.k.a. SXP
	- MSXML from Microsoft JVM 3186
	- DataChannel XJParser
    Validating
	- Sun TR2 (SAX2 wrapper)
	- IBM 2.0.15
	- Oracle 2.0.0.2 (SAX2 wrapper)

When you click on the links you'll see a report with all the
results, in gory detail -- don't print, browse online.  The
third table up front is a summary which the best overview you 
can get for the moment.  Yes, what folk _really_ need is a
comparative summary ... it's coming!  ;-)


> > If anything makes me want to kill a programmer, it's the level of
> > gratuitous nonconformance that a few of those parsers show!
> 
> I don't mind a parser that lets through the occasional document that should
> strictly be rejected (e.g. by tolerating a stray zero byte at the end of the
> document).

Unfortunately, not many parsers have as few problems as that!!
Look at the diagnostics in the reports above, and compare them
to what they should be trying to say (e.g. nothing :-).


>	  The only mainstream parser I refuse absolutely to use or
> recommend to anyone is the one that arbitrarily rejects well-formed
> documents. But since I don't want to have to defend myself in court, I'm
> reluctant to publish its name here - the authors know, because I have told
> them.

I think a bunch of the folk providing the parsers above have gotten
such reports from me, too.  Not many have fixed their problems though.
I'll mention Oracle favorably -- they deserve it!  That new parser is
looking nice, though it may not yet be shipped in products.

- Dave


> Mike Kay

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