SAX in a nutshell

• SAX is a protocol: It defines generic functions signifying events when walking over an XML document. Event is a fancy name for a function call.
• You handle SAX by defining CLOS methods for those events that you are interested in. Conversely, you generate SAX events by calling the functions.
• The first argument is always the SAX handler, usually an (indirect) instance of SAX:ABSTRACT-HANDLER.

Rough overview:

SAX:ABSTRACT-HANDLER	class
SAX:START-ELEMENT (handler uri lname qname attrs)	generic function
SAX:END-ELEMENT (handler uri lname qname)	generic function
SAX:CHARACTERS (handler data-string)	generic function