Re: namespace node implementation

On 10/21/03 8:46 PM, "Per Bothner" <per@bothner.com> wrote:
> The "behavior of existing XSLT implementations" is of course
> implementation-defined.  I don't have much experience with
> implementations.  (I've mostly used them with documents that don't use
> namespaces.)  Do most of them behave more-or-less the same wrt to
> namespace serialization?

I'm not sure what to say to this, other than humbly suggest that
you start creating by first observing prior art.

Even when the data model puts namespace nodes on an element,
you should only serialize them if necessary.  When an XML application
generates XML like

<a:x xmlns:a="foo">
  <a:y xmlns:a="foo">
    <a:z xmlns:a="foo">
      ...

you can be sure users won't use it for long.

That it is technically a correct serialization is completely
irrelevant -- namespace serialization carries a minimalist
aesthetic quality.  Serialize the least text required to
round-trip the data model.

>To repeat:  I'm hoping for feedback on the proposed *implementation*.
>Part of that is I'm hoping more experienced users *and* implementors can
>advice me whether my proposed implementation would produce results close
>to users' expectations.

Both your licensing terms and my finite patience prevent me from
taking the time to debug your algorithm.  I'm merely observing the
similarities between the output you yourself predicted and the
above example.

Whether you count that as feedback from someone who is both an experienced
user and an experienced implementer is up to you.



Best wishes,

Michael Brundage
xquery@comcast.net

Writing as
Author, XQuery: The XML Query Language (Addison-Wesley, 2004)
Co-author, Professional XML Databases (Wrox Press, 2000)

not as
Technical Lead
Common Query Runtime/XML Query Processing
WebData XML Team
Microsoft

Received on Wednesday, 22 October 2003 02:03:08 UTC