# About Saxon

Release 9.1 is the latest milestone in Saxonica's implementation of the XPath 2.0, XSLT 2.0, and XQuery 1.0 specifications.

This is the first release for nine months, and there are many new features and performance improvements. A full list is available and there is also a summary of the highlights.

The specifications listed above are now official W3C Recommendations. Saxon is fully conformant with the final version of the specs, providing all the mandatory features of those specifications and nearly all the optional features. For further details on conformance, see the conformance page.

Saxon continues its tradition of implementing new W3C drafts as soon as they become available. This release introduces support for XQuery Updates, for selected features from XML Schema 1.1, and even (in the form of vendor extensions) for a few (very) experimental ideas on streaming currently being discussed in the XSL Working Group. Saxon 9.1 also implements the proposed final draft of the XQuery API for Java (XQJ), passing all the compatibility tests.

Like previous releases, this version is shipped simultaneously for the Java and .NET platforms.

Saxon is available in two versions (each of which is delivered on both Java and .NET platforms). Saxon-B is a non-schema-aware processor, and is available as an open-source product, free of charge, from SourceForge. It is designed to conform to the basic conformance level of XSLT 2.0, and the equivalent level of functionality in XQuery 1.0. Saxon-SA is the schema-aware version of the package, and is available as a commercially supported product from Saxonica Limited. Licensing options are available to provide XSLT only, XQuery only, or schema validation only, as well as a full license that gives access to all functionality.

This documentation covers all versions of the product, with differences noted where applicable. For a summary of the differences, see Product Packages.

This documentation (including full API documentation for both the Java and .NET platforms) is provided on the Saxonica web site and is also available for download either from SourceForge or from Saxonica. The download file is named `saxon-resources9-n.zip`, and is separate from the software download. It includes documentation for both Saxon-B and Saxon-SA, on both platforms. The file also includes sample applications and Saxon-B source code.

JavaDoc API specifications and .NET API specifications are also available.

A full change log is provided.

If you are looking for an XSLT 1.0 or XPath 1.0 processor, Saxon 6.5.5 remains available. However, Saxon 9.1 is capable of executing XSLT 1.0 stylesheets with identical results in the vast majority of cases, often with much better performance, so you may prefer to use the latest release.

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