[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date]

RE: vendor neutral XSL extension namespace ?

---

---

> While assignment might allegedly be useful in some contexts, I don't
> really see how something that cuts so far across the design principles
> of the language could ever really be standardised as part of the
> language. Being side effect free affects the whole design and 
> flavour of the language.

I personally feel that an <xsl:assign> construct would make the language
much more accessible to a very large number of users, both
conventionally-trained programmers and self-taught script writers, and that
this outweighs the rather abstract (dare I say academic?) benefits of being
side-effect-free.

It's worth noting that the implementation of <saxon:assign> is only about 10
lines of code, it certainly doesn't have any radical impact on the design of
the software. Of course you could argue that's because Saxon's design never
exploited the possibilities of a side-effect free language in the first
place - I don't know.

Mike Kay


 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list

---