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Re: Formal parameters for stylesheets
Subject: Re: Formal parameters for stylesheets From: Jason Diamond <sendangels@xxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 23:01:20 -0800 |
Why not something similiar to the xsl:constant element? I assumed from the spec that the following would be replaced by the constant value: <xsl:value-of select="{constant(foo)}"/> But XT complains about an illegal token. The constant function does work as an attribute value template, though. Is this correct? A processor could actually support parameters without changing the spec. If a user did something like this on the command line: xt -Dfoo=bar test.xml test.xsl The processor could interpret that as inserting a: <xsl:constant name="foo" value="bar"/> into the stylesheet. Maybe a {parameter(foo)} function would actually help so that users don't confuse the two concepts, though. Jason Diamond "Borden, Jonathan" wrote: > I second both these 'requirements'. > > Perhaps the XSL parameters could be via a PI? e.g. > <?xml-stylesheet-parameters a="b" c="d" ?> > > > > > > > Getting a couple of things off of my chest: > > > > -- > > > > XSL stylesheets should be able to take formal parameters that control > > their behavior. Those parameters could be specified on the command line, > > in a browse dialog or in the stylesheet association link/processing > > instruction. > > > > DSSSL specifications almost always take formal parameters but the hacks > > that people have invented to allow them are all ...er... gross. People do > > things like automatically generating stylesheet bits, changing their > > document instance and so forth. That's ingenuity but it isn't what we > > should be forced to do. > > > > The only one that is not gross is overriding the value of a variable from > > outside. The problem with that mechanism is that there is no way that a > > GUI or command line tool can know which variables are supposed to be > > overriden and which ones are not. They just must "trust the user." It also > > means that a GUI cannot *prompt* for the appropriate paramaters. > > > > --- > > > > Let me also point out that it is absolutely vital that XSL be able to work > > with a hyperlinked web of document trees. One document at a time is NOT > > good enough by any stretch of the imagination. (similar hacks must be > > divised to work around this limitation in transformation languages that > > exhibit it) > > > > > Jonathan Borden > http://jabr.ne.mediaone.net > > XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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