8.2. SAX: An Event-Based API

Since XML hit the scene, hundreds of XML products have appeared, from validators to editors to digital asset management systems. All these products share some common traits: they deal with files, parse XML, and handle XML markup. Developers know that reinventing the wheel with software is costly, but that's exactly what they were doing with XML products. It soon became obvious that an application programming interface, or API, for XML processing was needed.

An API is a foundation for writing programs that handles the low-level stuff so you can concentrate on the real meat of your program. An XML API takes care of things like reading from files, parsing, and routing data to event handlers, while you just write the event-handling routines.