A specification for an event-driven XML parser. SAX parsers read XML files and raise appropriate events for each type of XML object encountered (start of element, end of element, character-data block, etc.). Unlike DOM parsers, SAX parsers do not create a representation of the document in RAM, which makes them faster and less memory-hungry. It is the application’s responsibility to use the SAX events to extract and maintain whatever information it requires. The current version is 2.0.2 (SAX2), with Java implementation generally regarded as normative in the absence of a formal specification.

http://www.sax.sourceforce.net/ The SAX home page