[Bug 1881] New: separator automatism does more harm than it helps

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=1881

           Summary: separator automatism does more harm than it helps
           Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
           Version: Last Call drafts
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Keywords: Usability
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: XSLT 2.0
        AssignedTo: mike@saxonica.com
        ReportedBy: stefan.wachter@gmx.de
         QAContact: public-qt-comments@w3.org


I work now with the Saxon XSLT 2.0 processor for about 9 months and do some
rather complicated transforms. Once and again separators that are automatically
inserted between sequence items when they are transformed into text nodes bite me.

Therefore I kindly ask, if it would make sense to have an output attribute that
globally sets the default separator. This would enable people to decide wheter
they want to use the tricky separator automatism or not.

Thanks for your attention,
Stefan Wachter