On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 4:56 AM, Andrew Welch <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >  On 5/4/08, Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >  > Just read the relevant W3 Specs and any good XSLT book.
>
> You could reply with that to any question...

Yes, and especially in this case this kind of reply is, I believe, the
most necessary for the group of very basic, core questions about XSLT.

>
> The xs namespace is a bit of a pain in XSLT 2.0 - you nearly always
> want to use it, so you have to define it and then exclude it... it's
> pretty much boilerplate code for a new transform.
>
> In XQuery it's inbuilt - you can use it without defining it.

This is why we have programming environments. I know at least two of
them (XSelerator and Visual Studio 2008/2005), which allow the XSLT
programmer to define skeletal code (a "snippet") to be displayed on
initial creation of an XSLT file.

I am using one of these programming environments on a daily basis.
Whenever I am creating a new XSLT 2.0 file with it, it automatically
displays the following starting code:

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
 xmlns:f="http://fxsl.sf.net/"
 exclude-result-prefixes="f xs"
 >

 <xsl:template match="/">

 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

and I do not have any problems with the prefixes ( either defining or
pruning them) I use most frequently.

I have another new-template that automatically creates the identity
rule for me, ..., and the possibilities for personalization are
virtually unlimited.


Certainly, such features are a must for any modern XSLT programming environment.

On the other hand, even using them does not mean the programmer should
not understand the auto-generated code (such as the
"exclude-result-prefixes" attribute) and this leads us at the point
where we started: training.

Let me congratulate Dr. Kay on the 4th edition of his "XSLT
Programmer's Reference" book. Although I have had for years his two
books on XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0, I am now ordering this new, 4th
edition.


-- 
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
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To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
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Never fight an inanimate object
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You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play



>
>
> --
> Andrew Welch
> http://andrewjwelch.com
> Kernow: http://kernowforsaxon.sf.net/