[Bug 4546] [XSLT] testing for namespace axis support

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=4546

           Summary: [XSLT] testing for namespace axis support
           Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
           Version: Recommendation
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Windows XP
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: XSLT 2.0
        AssignedTo: mike@saxonica.com
        ReportedBy: davidc@nag.co.uk
         QAContact: public-qt-comments@w3.org


The namespace Axis is optional in XPath with a comment that if it is not
supported then namespace nodes need not be supported at all.

In XSLT the option of not supporting namespace nodes is not present (as they
may be generated by xsl:namespace) so one may have expected that the namespace
axis was required but unfortunately it is only required in the scope of
backward compatibility mode.

For a real, fairly high profile example (the implementation of schematron)
where this is already causing problems in interoperability see

http://colina.demon.co.uk/?q=node/8

It's not possible to change this situation via errata, but this is a request
for
any XSLT 2.x release to address this by

(preferably) mandating support for the namespace axis or
adding something that allows a stylesheet to test for this, perhaps in
conjunction with system-property() (like xsl:supports-backwards-compatibility)

David

Received on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 15:39:56 UTC