A little while ago I noticed the SAX dot NET project was announced on the XML-DEV mailing list. From the desxcription on the project page
SAX dot NET is a C# port of the original Java based SAX API specifications. When compiled into a .NET assembly it becomes available to the other .NET languages as well.
The .NET Framework doesn't ship with an implementation of a SAX push model XML parser but instead ships with the pull-model parser in the form of the System.Xml.XmlReader class. The primary reasons for this can be gleaned from my article A Survey of APIs and Techniques for Processing XML where I list the pros and cons of various approaches for processing XML. The main advanatages a pull-model XML parser like the XmlReader have over a push model XML parser like SAX are
System.Xml.XmlReader
Pull model parsers typically do not require a specialized class for handling XML processing since there is no requirement to implement specific interfaces or subclass certain classes for the purpose of registering callbacks. Also the need to explicitly track application states using boolean flags and similar variables is significantly reduced when using a pull model parser
I can understand that developers migrating to the .NET Framework from Java platforms or MSXML would like to have the familiar feel of the SAX API so I definitely welcome such projects. However I have seen some criticism of the project from Daniel Cazzulino, a Microsoft XML MVP, in his post Do we need SAX for .NET? (or does Java ports to C# make sense?) he points out of some of the disadvantages of blindly porting an API from one platform to another. He points out some inconsistencies and redundancies between SAX dot NET and the .NET Framework such as
There is an XmlNamespaces class that does the same thing as the System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager class
XmlNamespaces
System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager
There are IAttributes AND IAttributes2, and the corresponding implementations called AttributesImpl and AttributesImpl2 which seem to imply interface versioning problems and legacy issues in a brand new project.
IAttributes
IAttributes2
AttributesImpl
AttributesImpl2
The existence of non-standard delegates such as OnPropertyChange(IProperty property, object newValue) instead of the typical pattern in the .NET world where it should be OnPropertyChange(object sender, ProperyChangeEventArgs e).
OnPropertyChange(IProperty property, object newValue)
OnPropertyChange(object sender, ProperyChangeEventArgs e)
I think Daniel raises good points and encourage any developer porting an API to the .NET Framework to endeavor to make it consistent with the patterns and naming conventions in the .NET Framework. Doing so makes it easier for developers to understand how to use the API since it will be familiar and contains few surprises.