So far, we have not allowed any 'import org.basex.*' in our code. I'm not an expert in XML or Java, but it was my understanding that XQJ is the standard way of operating on XML databases from Java code.
Yes, it's supposed to get the new official Java standard. However, there has been quite some discontent about its usability in the XQuery community; see e.g. here:
http://x-query.com/pipermail/talk/2009-June/
This is why many XML databases and processors don't offer XQJ at all (and XML:DB is out-of-dated)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xml_database
Next, we observe that many users start off with the official APIs and end up using our own API to get the full range of features, and, eventually, make things easier.
After all, I don't want to discourage anyone from using XQJ; some users are completely satisfied with it, and, as an external user, I'd prefer a generic XQuery API as well.
Comments from everyone are welcome. Christian