Saxon-SA versus Xalan

[Roger Holmes]

Thanks, that clear up my confusion.



________________________________
From: Michael Kay <http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>
To: Roger Holmes <http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>; http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
Sent: Saturday, 25 October, 2008 17:10:39
Subject: RE:  Saxon-SA versus Xalan


Are you talking XQuery or XSLT? Because Xalan is an XSLT processor, and this is an XQuery list. (Saxon does both XSLT and XQuery).
 
You can of course run schema validation prior to transformation using a schema processor that is entirely separate from the XSLT or XQuery engine. (You can can then choose any schema validator, including Saxon-SA or Xerces, and any transformation engine, including Saxon-B or Xalan). But this isn't the same as running a schema-aware transformation or query. When you run a schema-aware transformation or query, as well as ensuring that the input document is valid against the schema, you also get additional benefits:
 
* compile-time checking of the query or transformation code against the schema
 
* optimization of the query or transformation to take advantage of schema knowledge
 
* polymorphic operations based on schema-defined types, for example sorting dates as dates and numbers as numbers.
 
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
 
 


________________________________
From: http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk [mailto:http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk] On Behalf Of Roger Holmes
Sent: 25 October 2008 16:02
To: http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
Subject:  Saxon-SA versus Xalan


Hi, I am in the early stages of working with Saxon-B but was wondering as to the added benefits of Saxon-SA's transformation with schema validation versus Xalan with Xerces. 
My understanding is that Xalan provides support for Xerces to do XML transformation and schema validation. 

My understanding also is that Saxon ultimately expands an Xquery string does its conversion and at some stage hold its resultSet as XML nodes. Can these XML nodes prior to output by Saxon-B be transformed and validated via Xalan and Xerces ?

I  think I've answered my own question in a way, is the flaw in my logic that validation with Xalan will only happen after a successful / unsuccessful output of XML nodes whereas Saxon does it on the route to generating XML ?

OR is the difference that the Saxon implementation simply offers far better performance to make Xalan a consideration ?


Thanks,
Roger



      
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