The July 2000 beta release of the MSXML parser brings updated XSLT support, conformance improvements, and SAX2 event-based parsing support for Visual Basic.

XSLT support now includes: xsl:key, xsl:message, xsl:fallback, xsl:namespace-alias, and the XPath document and key functions.

A jumpstart document describing SAX2 support for Visual Basic is available, as well as a jumpstart for C++ developers.

A ZDNet story claims that Microsoft has achieved a 98 percent pass rate on the OASIS Conformance suite.

Like previous releases, it may be installed to run side-by-side with the older MSXML parser.

Related stories:

• New release of MSXML parser, tools (May)
• New release of Microsoft XML tools (March)
• Reporting on Microsoft XSLT and XPath conformance
• Microsoft on parser conformance