We ran into a problem trying to use Saxon B8.7.3 with the Java SE 6 beta. It was using its own XPathFactory rather than Saxon and so we were getting exceptions for all the XPath 2 constructs.

It seems that the format of the service provider configuration file in saxon8-xpath.jar - i.e. - META-INF/services/javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory depends on a bug that has been fixed for Java 6.

<http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6202043>

Unfortunately, changing the file to contain just the class name "net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl" (as the service provider documentation describes) works for Java6(beta) but not for Java 5.

I have discovered that adding a line containing only the class name to the beginning of the configuration file, keeping all the property definitions on subsequent lines, works for both Java 5 and the current Java 6(beta). Of course this depends on both versions being lenient in handling of errors and may cause problems for cases I have not tried; it cannot be recommended except as a crude workaround for those who need to work with both versions of Java.