Re: W3C Standards' Versions

On Wed, 2003-09-17 at 07:45, Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I've been using XSL to transform XML documents into HTML for a couple
> of months now.  All the examples I've seen use different XSL
> versions.  The two that I use the most are
> http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform/ and
> http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl/, while the latest is
> http://www.w3.org/TR/xsl/.  It would be nice if the W3C can add a page
> that compares one version of a W3C language with another version. 
> Make one of these two the latest, but give them the ability to compare
> any two.

For comparison, we use "cvs diff", i.e., we use the power
of the cvs archives and the ability to look at the diffs
between any two versions. Often, editors make available
the diffs between two documents in succession at a stable
URI.

I don't think we want to create a separate page for this,
because we would have to update it constantly. This is something
that should be done by programs on request.

>   It would also be nice if it was intuitive enough to tell us when
> something became obsolete, what should be used instead. 

W3C has pondered that problem at length. We have chosen a policy for the
time being that gives preference to "never touching the bits" over "show
me when this document is obsolete". In other words, we consider the
archival value of stable document to be greater than the value of
informing the user when a particular document has become obsolete.

Instead, each document includes two URIs, the "latest version' and the
"this version" URI.

You will always find the latest version of a given document series at
the "latest version" URI. If you need stability however (i.e., an
unchanging specific version), you would use the "this version" URI.

The stable Recommendation this version URI for XSL 1.0 is:
  http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xsl-20011015/

The XSL WG is working on version 2.0 of the language, currently
a Working Draft (which means it WILL change). The "latest version" URI
of this version of XSL is:
  http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/

I hope this helps.

 _ Ian

>  I would like to modify all my XSL documents, eventually, to use the
> final XSL standard.  Unfortunately, I don't know what to replace
> certain tags with and this would help a lot.  Thanks.
> 
> *************************************************************
> Bassam Abdul-Baki
> Senior Programmer / Analyst
> 
> Digital Access Corporation
> 2359 Research Court
> Woodbridge, VA 22192
> 
> * Email:  babdulbaki@digitalaccess.com
> ' Tel:  (703) 490-5400
>  2  Fax: (703) 491-5253
> : http://www.digitalaccess.com
> *************************************************************
> "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
> without accepting it." - Aristotle
-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Received on Wednesday, 17 September 2003 08:19:29 UTC