FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.6.0-rc"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-rc-b89)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 1.6.0-rc-b89, mixed mode)


ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Linux dhcp-172-61 2.6.16.18-3-smp #1 SMP Wed May 31 06:52:41 UTC 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

EXTRA RELEVANT SYSTEM CONFIGURATION :
saxon8.jar, saxon8-dom.jar and saxon8-xpath.jar are on the CLASSPATH

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
When trying to use XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0 in Saxon for processing transformations, the following error occurs:
JAXP: looking into jar:file:/home/westp/netbeans/V07-merged/V07/ddf-bin/lib/saxon8-xpath.jar!/META-INF/services/javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory
JAXP: Reading jar:file:/home/westp/netbeans/V07-merged/V07/ddf-bin/lib/saxon8-xpath.jar!/META-INF/services/javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: http\://java.sun.com/jaxp/xpath/dom: net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl
...

Note the spurious \ preceding the first : in
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: http\://java.sun.com/jaxp/xpath/dom:

Using the jvm argument
"-Djavax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory:http://java.sun.com/jaxp/xpath/dom=net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl"
fixes this problem.

This eror does not occur when using 1.5.0_07. The error was first noticed as wearly as April, but development reverted to 1.5 at that stage.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
This bug can be demonstrated using the Saxon samples.
Download the latest Saxon open source release, http://saxon.sourceforge.net/#F8.7.3B

Unpack and install on CLASSPATH.

cd <SAXON>/samples/java
(1)
CLASSPATH=".:$CLASSPATH" java XPathExample ../data/othello.xml
(2)
CLASSPATH=".:$CLASSPATH" java -Djavax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory:http://saxon.sf.net/jaxp/xpath/om=net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl XPathExample ../data/othello.xml


EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
Normal run of the program; query for a word; output of occurrences of the word.
ACTUAL -
(1)
Exception in thread "main" javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactoryConfigurationException: No XPathFactory implementation found for the object model: http://saxon.sf.net/jaxp/xpath/om
        at javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory.newInstance(XPathFactory.java:188)
        at XPathExample.go(XPathExample.java:58)
        at XPathExample.main(XPathExample.java:45)
(2)
Normal run

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
See example (2) above, and, for the original problem in the application,
Using the jvm argument
"-Djavax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory:http://java.sun.com/jaxp/xpath/dom=net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl"
fixes this problem.