The SAX1 API was finalized in May 1998, just
three months after XML itself was finalized, and was generally
well received.
Most Java XML parsers quickly adapted to it,
and new ones quickly adopted it. At one point, it was
possible to find no less than a dozen open source SAX1 parsers.
Today, new XML projects tend to build on top of the standard
APIs such as SAX, rather than underneath them, since most widely used parsers do support SAX.