RE: [xml-dev] xPath 2.0, XSLT 2.0 ... size increase over v1.0

["Dare Obasanjo" <dareo@microsoft.com>]

When last I looked it was impossible to avoid the new typing features of XSLT 2.0 because even queries like 
 
<xsl:value-of select="/foo + 1" />
 
that worked in XSLT 1.0 were not valid. However I am no longer directly involved with that family of technologies so things may have changed since then. 
 
OK, I just looked so it seems there is now an "XPath 1.0 Compatibility Mode" flag which can be switched on to give 1.0 semantics to XSLT 2.0. It seems you  are right then and folks can just ignore a lot of the typing features of XSLT 2.0 and just use it as XSLT 1.0 with a lot more functions plus some minor tweaks. Nice. 

________________________________

From: Erik Bruchez [mailto:erik@bruchez.org]
Sent: Tue 6/10/2003 11:52 AM
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] xPath 2.0, XSLT 2.0 ... size increase over v1.0



Dare Obasanjo wrote:

 > Of all the things beginners have difficulty with I'd expect that
 > telling them they need an explicit function call to convert a RTF to
 > a node set ranks low in complexity compared to just explaining
 > XSLT's functional nature or even worse explaining the static and
 > strong typing rules of XSLT 2.0.

The way I see things, in a first phase most people just won't use the
typing features of XSLT 2.0 and just use it as a better XSLT 1.0. I
may be wrong. Time will tell.

Regarding the difficulties, I agree, but it's in general easier to
teach a language that is well-designed rather than one that is not. So
teaching XSLT's functional nature may be difficult, but at least it is
based on sound concepts. RTFs are not. In passing, you can use XSLT in
a very imperative style, and many people just use it this way.

-Erik


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