# Prerequisites

The following software must be installed separately, it is not included with the Saxon download.

- To run Saxon you need at least a Java VM, and preferably a Java development environment. Saxon 8.1 requires JDK 1.4; this means it will no longer work with the Microsoft Java VM.

- Saxon has an option to work with a source tree constructed using JDOM. Saxon 8.1 is validated with JDOM 1.0 rc 1 and with JDOM beta 10; it probably also works with other recent releases.

Saxon has been tested successfully in the past with a wide variety of XML parsers including Xerces, Lark, SUN Project X, Crimson, Piccolo, Oracle XML, xerces, xml4j, and xp. Use of a SAX2-compliant parser is now mandatory. All the relevant classes must be installed on your Java CLASSPATH.

Earlier releases of Saxon included a version of the Ælfred XML parser. This is no longer bundled with the Saxon distribution, because JDK 1.4 now includes an XML parser as standard, but the Ælfred XML parser remains available as a separate download from the Saxon site at SourceForge.

Saxon's DOM interface has been tested with the Crimson parser included as standard in Sun's JDK 1.4 platform and with the Xerces 2.5.0 DOM implementation.

Because Saxon is run from the command line, you might find it useful (under Microsoft Windows) to have a text editor with better command-line support than the standard DOS window. I use jEdit, which is an open source product with a wide-selection of optional plug-ins, including one for editing XQuery.

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