>>>>> "John" == John Li <johnli121@xxxxxxx> writes:

    John> "... ... is canonical in the sense that within each child
    John> element of the root, the attributes are sorted
    John> lexicographically, and then those elements are sorted
    John> lexicographically with respect to the element names and
    John> attribute values."

    John> If xerces or xalan cannot do it, that will be a big trouble
    John> for me.

If you want Canonical XML, then it's not the parser (xerces) that need concern
you, but the serializer.
You will need to write your own XSLT serializer - I don't know whether
or not xalan supports this.
In such a case, there is no need for a sort step at all.
-- 
Colin Adams
Preston Lancashire