[Bug 2422] unclear how to interpret empty attribute values in xsl:output declarations

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=2422

           Summary: unclear how to interpret empty attribute values in
                    xsl:output declarations
           Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
           Version: Working drafts
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: XSLT 2.0
        AssignedTo: mike@saxonica.com
        ReportedBy: mike@skew.org
         QAContact: public-qt-comments@w3.org


It is not clear in XSLT 2.0 (or 1.0) how a processor should handle empty
attribute values in xsl:output declarations. Is this something that could be
addressed in XSLT 2.0?

Basically, we have a case where a user wants to be able to have an importing
stylesheet suppress the generation of a DOCTYPE. Is this possible?

For example, what does doctype-system="" mean? Is it supplying an 'explicit'
value for doctype-system? What should the effect of such a declaration be, if it
is in an importing stylesheet, while doctype-system="foo" is in the imported
stylesheet? Should the processor use "foo" or "" or should it 'undeclare' the
doctype-system altogether and thus use a default value (unless there's another
value with a higher import precedence)?

How would other xsl:output attributes be affected by empty values? For example,
cdata-section-elements="" in the importing stylesheet, and
cdata-section-elements="x y z" in the imported stylesheet. Would the result be
as if there were one declaration, "x y z", or would it be as if there were no
declaration? What if that first stylesheet were imported by a stylesheet
containing cdata-section-elements="w x y"? Would the result be "w x y z" or "w x y"?

Thanks

Received on Friday, 28 October 2005 00:50:52 UTC