Re: injecting options and parameters into XProc

On 10/8/07, Jeni Tennison <jeni@jenitennison.com> wrote:
> Jim,
>
> > let me try to explain the use case I would like;
> >
> > I would like to be able to set option values via commandline e.g. this
> > allows the computing environment to set their own defaults at runtime.
> >
> > one can set default values of p:option in declare-step but this means
> > the original xproc author is embedding how they see steps running (in
> > all environments); Xproc should be made easy to use by non-xproc folks
> > to execute.
>
> The author of a pipeline can define their pipeline to accept options,
> and then pass those along when they invoke the declared step.
>
> <p:pipeline name="example">
>    <p:option name="command-line-option" />
>
>    <ex:step name="example-step">
>      <p:option name="step-option" select="$command-line-option" />
>    </ex:step>
> </p:pipeline>
>
> Which options they choose to expose in this way is up to them.
>
> In what way doesn't this address your requirement?

yes, I know this ;)

the use case I am highlighting is that of execution configurability.

if I can use an analogy with Ant.

the current method in xproc, as u describe, is akin to setting
presetdef in Ant. That is setting default values of options within
xproc code. This is a good thing.

to go further, with Ant presetdefs, I can use Ant properties to make
these preset default values definable at from the commandline.

having this is useful for;

* enabling fully configuration of xproc at parse time (options can
remain invariant after values are parsed, so I see no big issue with
this)

* u do not ask the person executing xproc, to have to know xproc, e.g.
dig into the code and change things

as with any useful software, there should be a larger body of users
just 'running' the script...which is what this use case highlights.

thx, Jim

this

>
> Jeni
> --
> Jeni Tennison
> http://www.jenitennison.com
>

Received on Monday, 8 October 2007 16:59:21 UTC