use strict;
use warnings;

BEGIN {
   package MySAXHandler;
   use parent 'XML::SAX::Base';
   sub start_element { print "element $_[1]{Name}\n"; }
   sub end_element   { print "element end\n"; }
   sub characters    { print "text $_[1]{Data}\n"; }
}

#use XML::SAX;
use XML::SAX::PurePerl;

#my $parser = XML::SAX::ParserFactory->parser(
my $parser = XML::SAX::PurePerl->new(
    Handler => MySAXHandler->new(),
);

$parser->parse_uri("foo.xml");

##</code><code>##

<root><tag>&lt;SOMETHING&gt;</tag></root>

##</code><code>##

element root
element tag
text <
text SOMETHING
text >
element end
element end