The ultimate goal of the Xerces 2 refactoring effort is to develop an XML parser that is simple, clean, and modular. By clearly defining the internal interfaces of the parser components, the design of the parser will be better understood and enable people to add features and fix bugs. Also, the modularity of the design will enable custom configurations of the parser that can be used in a wide variety of applications.
Xerces is a general purpose XML parser designed to be suitable for a wide range of applications. A parser with better performance can be written but it is believed that a general design will suit a larger audience of XML application developers. Therefore, any design should take into consideration what the users of the parser need.
A few scenarios highlight the disparate needs of the developer audience: