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RE: [xsl] opinion re flexible style vs speed

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> For tens of thousands or millions of documents being 
> processed, this can translate into a big savings when it 
> comes to having to reprocess large batches of articles.
> 
> I'm torn about using this technique though, since to me it 
> will mean somebody down the line will be stuck with examining 
> the stylesheets if the data model changes in such a way that 
> we need to process the body.

My rule would be: make performance improvements that reduce flexibility if
and only if you actually need the performance improvement.

But as David says, it's a gut feel decision that software designers are
making all the time, and get wrong as often as they get it right. One of the
problems is that you can measure performance, but you can't measure
flexibility.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

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