Re: Are folks still actively using Xalan-J?

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Hi Joseph,

There is no way to know really how much a project is used, we can only get
very coarse grained stats from places like Maven Central for Java
artifacts. It's just the nature of this type of software distribution.

From a user perspective, Saxon is light years ahead of Xalan-J. I did the
last Xalan-J release and it was a pain. No one is around to remember what
is in what branch. The tooling is outdated as is the Java version minimally
required.

XSL specifications are up to 3.0 and Xalan-J is still on 1.0 so there would
be a huge amount of work to do to move the project forward.

Another issue is that I do not think we know what Oracle has done since it
copied Xalan inside the JRE codebase.

Gary

On Wed, Feb 2, 2022, 12:07 Joseph Kesselman <[email protected]> wrote:

> Or has everyone moved to other tools?
>
> As [email protected], I was involved in Xalan's development. (And
> Xerxes, to a _much_ lesser extent; I wrote their first DOM implementation.)
>
> I retired last year, which means I have some hours available. I have a
> personal project under way right now, but after I get version 1.0 of that
> published I could be persuaded to re-familiarize myself with the Xalan-J
> code and do some cleanup and improvement on it. Some of the ideas we were
> playing with internally were patented, but (a) I think IBM would grant
> approval to Apache if we ask nicely, and (b) I think the one I'd want to
> use first may have elapsed by now in any case.
>
> Note that I'm not volunteering to tackle the current implementation of
> Xalan-C. That was based on Xalan 1.0, which is a somewhat different
> architecture, I wasn't involved in the translation, and C++ is not my
> strong suit; I was able to keep Xalan-C limping along for a while, but I
> would recommend rewriting it completely, preferably _after_ at least some
> of the work on Xalan-J has been done. (A shift to a cursor-based data model
> API in particular.) Also, I suspect that Xalan-C's code is horribly archaic
> at this point; C++ was still trying to find it's feet at the time it was
> written.
>
> Anyway, there it is: if there's significant demand, I can try to make
> myself available; if there isn't, I'd rather put my effort into something
> that would be more valuable to the community.
>
> -
> Sent from palmtop; apologies for any auto-incorrections.
> () | Text Mail Campaign
> /\ | Stamp out HTML mail
>

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<div dir=3D"auto"><div>Hi Joseph,</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=
=3D"auto">There is no way to know really how much a project is used, we can=
 only get very coarse grained stats from places like Maven Central for Java=
 artifacts. It&#39;s just the nature of this type of software distribution.=
=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">From a user persp=
ective, Saxon is light years ahead of Xalan-J. I did the last Xalan-J relea=
se and it was a pain. No one is around to remember what is in what branch. =
The tooling is outdated as is the Java version minimally required.=C2=A0</d=
iv><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">XSL specifications are up =
to 3.0 and Xalan-J is still on 1.0 so there would be a huge amount of work =
to do to move the project=C2=A0forward.=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></=
div><div dir=3D"auto">Another issue is that I do not think we know what Ora=
cle has done since it copied Xalan inside the JRE codebase.</div><div dir=
=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">Gary</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br><div =
class=3D"gmail_quote" dir=3D"auto"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">On=
 Wed, Feb 2, 2022, 12:07 Joseph Kesselman &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:keshlam@alu=
m.mit.edu">[email protected]</a>&gt; wrote:<br></div><blockquote class=
=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padd=
ing-left:1ex"><div dir=3D"auto">Or has everyone moved to other tools?<div d=
ir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">As <a href=3D"mailto:keshlam@watson=
.ibm.com" target=3D"_blank" rel=3D"noreferrer">[email protected]</a>, =
I was involved in Xalan&#39;s development. (And Xerxes, to a _much_ lesser =
extent; I wrote their first DOM implementation.)</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br=
></div><div dir=3D"auto">I retired last year, which means I have some hours=
 available. I have a personal project under way right now, but after I get =
version 1.0 of that published I could be persuaded to re-familiarize myself=
 with the Xalan-J code and do some cleanup and improvement on it. Some of t=
he ideas we were playing with internally were patented, but (a) I think IBM=
 would grant approval to Apache if we ask nicely, and (b) I think the one I=
&#39;d want to use first may have elapsed by now in any case.</div><div dir=
=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">Note that I&#39;m not volunteering to=
 tackle the current implementation of Xalan-C. That was based on Xalan 1.0,=
 which is a somewhat different architecture, I wasn&#39;t involved in the t=
ranslation, and C++ is not my strong suit; I was able to keep Xalan-C limpi=
ng along for a while, but I would recommend rewriting it completely, prefer=
ably _after_ at least some of the work on Xalan-J has been done. (A shift t=
o a cursor-based data model API in particular.) Also, I suspect that Xalan-=
C&#39;s code is horribly archaic at this point; C++ was still trying to fin=
d it&#39;s feet at the time it was written.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></di=
v><div dir=3D"auto">Anyway, there it is: if there&#39;s significant demand,=
 I can try to make myself available; if there isn&#39;t, I&#39;d rather put=
 my effort into something that would be more valuable to the community.</di=
v><div dir=3D"auto"><br><div data-smartmail=3D"gmail_signature" dir=3D"auto=
">-</div><div data-smartmail=3D"gmail_signature" dir=3D"auto">Sent from pal=
mtop; apologies for any auto-incorrections.<br>() | Text Mail Campaign<br>/=
\ | Stamp out HTML mail</div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div>

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