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Posted to c-users@xalan.apache.org by Martin Baute <so...@rootdirectory.de> on 2010/08/24 15:55:16 UTC

Status of Xalan?

Hello all,

what is the status of the Xalan-C project?

To be quite honest, from the outside it looks like this project has more
or less been abandoned:

* The last release (1.10.0) is five years old, and

* depends on an equally-old Xerces-C version, and

* when using ICU for localization, it breaks with ICU >= 4.x (ref.
XALANC-702).

* (Sidenote) Several links on the project website are broken (as far as I
can see, all links that should point into the Jira).

I am maintaining several software projects that rely on Xalan / Xerces for
XML processing, and ICU for Unicode support. Right now, I keep compatible
with Xalan by not updating. The problem is clear:

* OS update -> new GCC

* new GCC -> build of ICU 3.x breaks -> new ICU

* new ICU -> build of Xerces-C breaks -> new Xerces-C

BUT:

* new ICU -> build of Xalan-C breaks -> NO NEW XALAN-C AVAILABLE.

At the bottom line, my question is: Is there something I overlooked, like
some post-1.10.0 release of Xalan-C that I simply missed, or a new Xalan-C
release just around the corner?

Or should I start looking for an alternative to Xalan-C because this
project is defunct?

Regards,
--
Martin Baute
solar@rootdirectory.de

Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by Martin Baute <so...@rootdirectory.de>.
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:26:40 -0700, David Bertoni <db...@apache.org>
wrote:
> I have been very busy with work and life, so it's been hard to 
> contribute like I did when IBM was essentially paying me to work on 
> Xalan-C.

I can absolutely understand that.

> It would be great if some poeple out there who need things to 
> get moving would help out.

I understand that, too. However, my employer wouldn't be happy with
me working office-hours to support a third-party dependency - and in
my free time, I'd like to work on things unrelated to my work.

> I think you'll find the trunk of the SVN repository is up-to-date and 
> more stable than 1.10.

That is usually (and in my case) not an option. I am sure you can imagine
the seven kinds of hell you'd get dragged through for using an
*unreleased*
"development version" of a third-party dependency...

> As for using the ICU, the only thing that's broken is using the ICU as 
> the message loader. You can certainly use ICU integration for everything

> else.  This can be accomplished by using the -t icu -m inmen option for 
> runConfigure on the Unix/Linux platforms, and by using the Xalan.dsw 
> Visual Studio projects and building the "Debug with ICU" or "Release 
> with ICU" options. There is no added value to using the ICU as the 
> localization option, since there are no localizations for the Xalan-C 
> messages, and the only advantage to using the ICU message bundles are 
> multiple languages in a single message shared library/DLL.

Thanks for the info, I will try that. (Nevertheless, it would look
very good to have a newer release of Xalan out.)

> As for doing a Xalan-C release, the actual knowledge of how to do that 
> has been lost with people leaving the project...

I feel your pain. No, really. Maintaining stuff others have abandoned
isn't fun. (I've been doing it for a decade...)

Regards,
--
Martin Baute
solar@rootdirectory.de

Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by Steven Hathaway <sh...@e-z.net>.
I have asked several times about the policies, procedures, and 
administrative requirements to move Xalan-C version 1.11 into production.

I have looked at the web site sources and the documentation.  I have 
also looked at the job to update the documentation for version 1.11 and 
prepare a baseline website for version 1.11 documentation.  I do not 
desire to have the keys to administer the Apache web repositories 
without being employed by a corporate sponsor.  I am willing to provide 
input to a designated Apache/Xalan-C web administrator.  This includes 
web page design and documentation updates.

I am willing to do what I can to prepare version 1.11 documentation, but 
it will need to be reviewed.

Unlike the Xerces-C project, the Xalan-C project does not collect SVN 
snapshots to the Apache SVN repository.  I would also like to see that 
happen.  Such a repository would help implementers deploy version 1.11+ 
and colaborate on the Xalan-C issues.  The code for version 1.11 seems 
well tested by the current users of the SVN repository.

The development platforms I support include GNU/Linux, Microsoft (.net 
2003, 2005, 2008, 2010).  I may be able to help find some support for 
AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Solaris, Stratus-VOS, and IBM Mainframe platforms.  
Most of these platforms should already be well tested on version 1.11 by 
developers.

Steve Hathaway - State of Oregon

On 8/28/2010 11:05 AM, David Bertoni wrote:
> On 8/27/2010 1:17 PM, ian balanza-davis wrote:
>> Well, it would be a bit of a busman's holiday if docs are involved, but
>> I am happy to help if I can.
> Hi Ian,
>
> Thanks for the offer to help. The documentation, particularly 
> generating the new web site is the biggest problem. I've never built 
> the docs, so I'm not sure what's involved.
>
> I'll do a search in my old emails to see if I can find some details.
>
> The other issue is getting access to enough non-x86 systems to do some 
> release testing. This will be particularly important if any work is 
> done to update the build system.
>
> Dave
>

Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by Aleksandr Vinokurov <al...@gmail.com>.
David, Ian,

I have an access to Ultrasparc with Solaris 5.10, IA64 HP-UX 11.23, 11.31
but I build code with gcc 4.3.3 on then, and not familiar with there native
compilers.

Best regards,
Aleksandr.

On 28 August 2010 22:05, David Bertoni <db...@apache.org> wrote:

> On 8/27/2010 1:17 PM, ian balanza-davis wrote:
>
>> Well, it would be a bit of a busman's holiday if docs are involved, but
>> I am happy to help if I can.
>>
> Hi Ian,
>
> Thanks for the offer to help. The documentation, particularly generating
> the new web site is the biggest problem. I've never built the docs, so I'm
> not sure what's involved.
>
> I'll do a search in my old emails to see if I can find some details.
>
> The other issue is getting access to enough non-x86 systems to do some
> release testing. This will be particularly important if any work is done to
> update the build system.
>
> Dave
>

Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by David Bertoni <db...@apache.org>.
On 8/27/2010 1:17 PM, ian balanza-davis wrote:
> Well, it would be a bit of a busman's holiday if docs are involved, but
> I am happy to help if I can.
Hi Ian,

Thanks for the offer to help. The documentation, particularly generating 
the new web site is the biggest problem. I've never built the docs, so 
I'm not sure what's involved.

I'll do a search in my old emails to see if I can find some details.

The other issue is getting access to enough non-x86 systems to do some 
release testing. This will be particularly important if any work is done 
to update the build system.

Dave

Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by ian balanza-davis <ib...@yahoo.co.uk>.
Well, it would be a bit of a busman's holiday if docs are involved, but I am 
happy to help if I can.


Ian


________________________________
From: David Bertoni <db...@apache.org>
To: xalan-c-users@xml.apache.org
Sent: Fri, 27 August, 2010 19:26:40
Subject: Re: Status of Xalan?

On 8/24/2010 6:55 AM, Martin Baute wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> what is the status of the Xalan-C project?
> 
> To be quite honest, from the outside it looks like this project has more
> or less been abandoned:
> 
> * The last release (1.10.0) is five years old, and
> 
> * depends on an equally-old Xerces-C version, and
> 
> * when using ICU for localization, it breaks with ICU>= 4.x (ref.
> XALANC-702).
> 
> * (Sidenote) Several links on the project website are broken (as far as I
> can see, all links that should point into the Jira).
> 
> I am maintaining several software projects that rely on Xalan / Xerces for
> XML processing, and ICU for Unicode support. Right now, I keep compatible
> with Xalan by not updating. The problem is clear:
> 
> * OS update ->  new GCC
> 
> * new GCC ->  build of ICU 3.x breaks ->  new ICU
> 
> * new ICU ->  build of Xerces-C breaks ->  new Xerces-C
> 
> BUT:
> 
> * new ICU ->  build of Xalan-C breaks ->  NO NEW XALAN-C AVAILABLE.
> 
> At the bottom line, my question is: Is there something I overlooked, like
> some post-1.10.0 release of Xalan-C that I simply missed, or a new Xalan-C
> release just around the corner?
> 
> Or should I start looking for an alternative to Xalan-C because this
> project is defunct?
I have been very busy with work and life, so it's been hard to contribute like I 
did when IBM was essentially paying me to work on Xalan-C. It would be great if 
some poeple out there who need things to get moving would help out.

I think you'll find the trunk of the SVN repository is up-to-date and more 
stable than 1.10.

As for using the ICU, the only thing that's broken is using the ICU as the 
message loader. You can certainly use ICU integration for everything else.  This 
can be accomplished by using the -t icu -m inmen option for runConfigure on the 
Unix/Linux platforms, and by using the Xalan.dsw Visual Studio projects and 
building the "Debug with ICU" or "Release with ICU" options. There is no added 
value to using the ICU as the localization option, since there are no 
localizations for the Xalan-C messages, and the only advantage to using the ICU 
message bundles are multiple languages in a single message shared library/DLL.

As for doing a Xalan-C release, the actual knowledge of how to do that has been 
lost with people leaving the project, so if someone would like to help with 
resurrecting the process, that would be great. My suspicion is the only 
difficulty would be generating new docs for the web site.

Dave



      

Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by David Bertoni <db...@apache.org>.
On 8/24/2010 6:55 AM, Martin Baute wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> what is the status of the Xalan-C project?
>
> To be quite honest, from the outside it looks like this project has more
> or less been abandoned:
>
> * The last release (1.10.0) is five years old, and
>
> * depends on an equally-old Xerces-C version, and
>
> * when using ICU for localization, it breaks with ICU>= 4.x (ref.
> XALANC-702).
>
> * (Sidenote) Several links on the project website are broken (as far as I
> can see, all links that should point into the Jira).
>
> I am maintaining several software projects that rely on Xalan / Xerces for
> XML processing, and ICU for Unicode support. Right now, I keep compatible
> with Xalan by not updating. The problem is clear:
>
> * OS update ->  new GCC
>
> * new GCC ->  build of ICU 3.x breaks ->  new ICU
>
> * new ICU ->  build of Xerces-C breaks ->  new Xerces-C
>
> BUT:
>
> * new ICU ->  build of Xalan-C breaks ->  NO NEW XALAN-C AVAILABLE.
>
> At the bottom line, my question is: Is there something I overlooked, like
> some post-1.10.0 release of Xalan-C that I simply missed, or a new Xalan-C
> release just around the corner?
>
> Or should I start looking for an alternative to Xalan-C because this
> project is defunct?
I have been very busy with work and life, so it's been hard to 
contribute like I did when IBM was essentially paying me to work on 
Xalan-C. It would be great if some poeple out there who need things to 
get moving would help out.

I think you'll find the trunk of the SVN repository is up-to-date and 
more stable than 1.10.

As for using the ICU, the only thing that's broken is using the ICU as 
the message loader. You can certainly use ICU integration for everything 
else.  This can be accomplished by using the -t icu -m inmen option for 
runConfigure on the Unix/Linux platforms, and by using the Xalan.dsw 
Visual Studio projects and building the "Debug with ICU" or "Release 
with ICU" options. There is no added value to using the ICU as the 
localization option, since there are no localizations for the Xalan-C 
messages, and the only advantage to using the ICU message bundles are 
multiple languages in a single message shared library/DLL.

As for doing a Xalan-C release, the actual knowledge of how to do that 
has been lost with people leaving the project, so if someone would like 
to help with resurrecting the process, that would be great. My suspicion 
is the only difficulty would be generating new docs for the web site.

Dave

RE: Status of Xalan?

Posted by Robert Conde <Ro...@ai-solutions.com>.
I'd also like to thank David for all his hard work, but it'd indeed be nice
to know where this is going.

Rob Conde

-----Original Message-----
From: Holger Flörke [mailto:floerke@doctronic.de] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 10:39 AM
To: xalan-c-users@xml.apache.org
Subject: Re: Status of Xalan?

Hi Martin,

the same for me. We are waiting for 1.11 and maybe a chance to get some
support for XSLT2 features.

Regards and thanks to all members for the great work in the last years,

Holger Floerke

Am 24.08.2010 16:28, schrieb Aleksandr Vinokurov:
> Hello Martin,
> 
> I (from the point of the company I work on) have the same issues. And we
> (it was not my decision) use subversion HEAD to get it with top
Xerces-c...
> 
> Still waiting for 1.11.
> 
> With all the best to developers,
> Aleksandr Vinokurov.
> 
> On 24 August 2010 17:55, Martin Baute <solar@rootdirectory.de
> <ma...@rootdirectory.de>> wrote:
> 
>     Hello all,
> 
>     what is the status of the Xalan-C project?
> 
>     To be quite honest, from the outside it looks like this project has
more
>     or less been abandoned:
> 
>     * The last release (1.10.0) is five years old, and
> 
>     * depends on an equally-old Xerces-C version, and
> 
>     * when using ICU for localization, it breaks with ICU >= 4.x (ref.
>     XALANC-702).
> 
>     * (Sidenote) Several links on the project website are broken (as far
>     as I
>     can see, all links that should point into the Jira).
> 
>     I am maintaining several software projects that rely on Xalan /
>     Xerces for
>     XML processing, and ICU for Unicode support. Right now, I keep
>     compatible
>     with Xalan by not updating. The problem is clear:
> 
>     * OS update -> new GCC
> 
>     * new GCC -> build of ICU 3.x breaks -> new ICU
> 
>     * new ICU -> build of Xerces-C breaks -> new Xerces-C
> 
>     BUT:
> 
>     * new ICU -> build of Xalan-C breaks -> NO NEW XALAN-C AVAILABLE.
> 
>     At the bottom line, my question is: Is there something I overlooked,
>     like
>     some post-1.10.0 release of Xalan-C that I simply missed, or a new
>     Xalan-C
>     release just around the corner?
> 
>     Or should I start looking for an alternative to Xalan-C because this
>     project is defunct?
> 
>     Regards,
>     --
>     Martin Baute
>     solar@rootdirectory.de <ma...@rootdirectory.de>
> 
> 


-- 
holger floerke                      d  o  c  t  r  o  n  i  c
email floerke@doctronic.de          information publishing + retrieval
phone +49 228 92 682 00             http://www.doctronic.de

doctronic GmbH & Co. KG, Sitz: Bonn, HRA 4685 AG Bonn
Ust-IdNr.: DE 210 898 186, Komplementaerin:
doctronic Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Sitz: Bonn, HRB 8926 AG Bonn
Geschaeftsfuehrer: Holger Floerke, Carsten Oberscheid, Ingo Kueper

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email 
______________________________________________________________________



Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by Holger Flörke <fl...@doctronic.de>.
Hi Martin,

the same for me. We are waiting for 1.11 and maybe a chance to get some
support for XSLT2 features.

Regards and thanks to all members for the great work in the last years,

Holger Floerke

Am 24.08.2010 16:28, schrieb Aleksandr Vinokurov:
> Hello Martin,
> 
> I (from the point of the company I work on) have the same issues. And we
> (it was not my decision) use subversion HEAD to get it with top Xerces-c...
> 
> Still waiting for 1.11.
> 
> With all the best to developers,
> Aleksandr Vinokurov.
> 
> On 24 August 2010 17:55, Martin Baute <solar@rootdirectory.de
> <ma...@rootdirectory.de>> wrote:
> 
>     Hello all,
> 
>     what is the status of the Xalan-C project?
> 
>     To be quite honest, from the outside it looks like this project has more
>     or less been abandoned:
> 
>     * The last release (1.10.0) is five years old, and
> 
>     * depends on an equally-old Xerces-C version, and
> 
>     * when using ICU for localization, it breaks with ICU >= 4.x (ref.
>     XALANC-702).
> 
>     * (Sidenote) Several links on the project website are broken (as far
>     as I
>     can see, all links that should point into the Jira).
> 
>     I am maintaining several software projects that rely on Xalan /
>     Xerces for
>     XML processing, and ICU for Unicode support. Right now, I keep
>     compatible
>     with Xalan by not updating. The problem is clear:
> 
>     * OS update -> new GCC
> 
>     * new GCC -> build of ICU 3.x breaks -> new ICU
> 
>     * new ICU -> build of Xerces-C breaks -> new Xerces-C
> 
>     BUT:
> 
>     * new ICU -> build of Xalan-C breaks -> NO NEW XALAN-C AVAILABLE.
> 
>     At the bottom line, my question is: Is there something I overlooked,
>     like
>     some post-1.10.0 release of Xalan-C that I simply missed, or a new
>     Xalan-C
>     release just around the corner?
> 
>     Or should I start looking for an alternative to Xalan-C because this
>     project is defunct?
> 
>     Regards,
>     --
>     Martin Baute
>     solar@rootdirectory.de <ma...@rootdirectory.de>
> 
> 


-- 
holger floerke                      d  o  c  t  r  o  n  i  c
email floerke@doctronic.de          information publishing + retrieval
phone +49 228 92 682 00             http://www.doctronic.de

doctronic GmbH & Co. KG, Sitz: Bonn, HRA 4685 AG Bonn
Ust-IdNr.: DE 210 898 186, Komplementaerin:
doctronic Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Sitz: Bonn, HRB 8926 AG Bonn
Geschaeftsfuehrer: Holger Floerke, Carsten Oberscheid, Ingo Kueper

Re: Status of Xalan?

Posted by Aleksandr Vinokurov <al...@gmail.com>.
Hello Martin,

I (from the point of the company I work on) have the same issues. And we (it
was not my decision) use subversion HEAD to get it with top Xerces-c...

Still waiting for 1.11.

With all the best to developers,
Aleksandr Vinokurov.

On 24 August 2010 17:55, Martin Baute <so...@rootdirectory.de> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> what is the status of the Xalan-C project?
>
> To be quite honest, from the outside it looks like this project has more
> or less been abandoned:
>
> * The last release (1.10.0) is five years old, and
>
> * depends on an equally-old Xerces-C version, and
>
> * when using ICU for localization, it breaks with ICU >= 4.x (ref.
> XALANC-702).
>
> * (Sidenote) Several links on the project website are broken (as far as I
> can see, all links that should point into the Jira).
>
> I am maintaining several software projects that rely on Xalan / Xerces for
> XML processing, and ICU for Unicode support. Right now, I keep compatible
> with Xalan by not updating. The problem is clear:
>
> * OS update -> new GCC
>
> * new GCC -> build of ICU 3.x breaks -> new ICU
>
> * new ICU -> build of Xerces-C breaks -> new Xerces-C
>
> BUT:
>
> * new ICU -> build of Xalan-C breaks -> NO NEW XALAN-C AVAILABLE.
>
> At the bottom line, my question is: Is there something I overlooked, like
> some post-1.10.0 release of Xalan-C that I simply missed, or a new Xalan-C
> release just around the corner?
>
> Or should I start looking for an alternative to Xalan-C because this
> project is defunct?
>
> Regards,
> --
> Martin Baute
> solar@rootdirectory.de
>