FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.6.0-ea"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.6.0-ea-b58)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-ea-b58, mixed mode, sharing)

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Windows 2003 SP1

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
 public static XMLReader createXMLReader (String className)
throws SAXException
{
    try {
         return (XMLReader)(Class.forName(className).newInstance());
    } catch (ClassNotFoundException e1) {
         throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" not found", e1);
    } catch (IllegalAccessException e2) {
         throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" found but cannot be loaded", e2);
    } catch (InstantiationException e3) {
throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" loaded but cannot be instantiated (no empty public constructor?)",
e3);
    } catch (ClassCastException e4) {
         throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" does not implement XMLReader", e4);
    }
}

This is code from Xerces. ClassCastException is being always trown on jre 1.6.0ea

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
download http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/www/apache/dist/xml/batik/batik-1.6.zip,
unzip, cd batik-1.6, java -jar batik-squiggle.jar
The exception is thrown

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
  Program should work without exceptions
ACTUAL -
java.io.IOException: SAX2 driver class org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser does not implement XMLReader


ERROR MESSAGES/STACK TRACES THAT OCCUR :
java.io.IOException: SAX2 driver class org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser does not implement XMLReader
at org.apache.batik.dom.util.SAXDocumentFactory.createDocument(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.batik.dom.util.SAXDocumentFactory.createDocument(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.batik.dom.svg.SAXSVGDocumentFactory.createDocument(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.batik.dom.svg.SAXSVGDocumentFactory.createSVGDocument(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.batik.bridge.DocumentLoader.loadDocument(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.batik.swing.svg.SVGDocumentLoader.run(Unknown Source)


REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
public static XMLReader createXMLReader (String className)
throws SAXException
{
    try {
         return (XMLReader)(Class.forName(className).newInstance());
    } catch (ClassNotFoundException e1) {
         throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" not found", e1);
    } catch (IllegalAccessException e2) {
         throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" found but cannot be loaded", e2);
    } catch (InstantiationException e3) {
throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" loaded but cannot be instantiated (no empty public constructor?)",
e3);
    } catch (ClassCastException e4) {
         throw new SAXException("SAX2 driver class " + className +
" does not implement XMLReader", e4);
    }
}

This is code from Xerces. http://xerces.apache.org/
---------- END SOURCE ----------