[Bug 29920] [XSLT30] (editorial) What does "target attribute" mean?

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=29920

--- Comment #1 from Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> ---
Yes, "target" is one of those words that can easily slip into a spec because it
looks precise when actually it has no definition. Unfortunately, when we try to
define it more formally we hit another problem, which is that the target
attribute may or may not exist (and it's hard to speak rigorously when
referring to a node that doesn't exist).

Perhaps:

Wherever a no-namespace attribute name N is permitted to appear on an element
in the XSLT namespace (provided that N does not start with an underscore), then
a value V can be supplied for N in one of two ways:

1. The conventional way is for an attribute node with name N and value V to
appear in the XDM representation of the element node in the stylesheet tree.

2. As an alternative, a shadow attribute may be supplied allowing the value V
to be statically computed during the preprocessing phase. The shadow attribute
has a name  that is the same as the name N prefixed with an underscore, and the
value of the shadow attribute is a value template in which all expressions
enclosed between curly braces must be static expressions. The value V is the
result of evaluating the value template. If a shadow attribute is present, then
any attribute node with name N on its parent element is ignored.

Then move the sentence "If a shadow attribute and its corresponding target
attribute are both present in the stylesheet, the non-shadow attribute is
ignored." into the following Note, where we are allowed to use less formal
language.

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Received on Thursday, 13 October 2016 14:58:09 UTC