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[xsl] Question on space normalization in serialization

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I am probably forgetting something basic in the XSLT specs about how string variables are created and evaluated, but I was experimenting with including CSS rules within an XSLT stylesheet and then writing them at run time along with the output of my transformation via xsl:result-document. I discovered that if I put the CSS into a string variable using the @select attribute, linefeeds are not preserved in the output; but if I put the CSS text into a sequence constructor, the linefeeds are preserved in the output. What's the underlying reason, assuming this isn't implementation-dependent? (I'm testing with Saxon; XSLT 2 and 3 produce identical results.)

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
  exclude-result-prefixes="xs"
  version="2.0">
  <xsl:variable name="CSS1" as="xs:string" select="'
    p { color:pink; }
    a { font-family: fantasy}
    '"/>
  <xsl:variable name="CSS2" as="xs:string">
    p { color:pink; }
    a { font-family: fantasy}
  </xsl:variable>
  <xsl:template name="main">
    <xsl:result-document href="test1.css" method="text">
      <xsl:value-of select="$CSS1"/>
    </xsl:result-document>
    <xsl:result-document href="test2.css" method="text">
      <xsl:value-of select="$CSS2"/>
    </xsl:result-document>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

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David Sewell, Editorial and Technical Manager
ROTUNDA, The University of Virginia Press
PO Box 400318, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4314 USA
Email: dsewell@xxxxxxxxxxxx   Tel: +1 434 924 9973
Web: http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/

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