Something missing from the XProc spec...

I'm currently looking at the XProc test suite, and it occurred to me
that there is one particular 'step' missing from XProc. Here is a simple
test from the Test Suite:

<t:test xmlns:t="http://xproc.org/ns/testsuite"
        xmlns:p="http://www.w3.org/ns/xproc"
        xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/ns/xproc-step"
        xmlns:err="http://www.w3.org/ns/xproc-error">

  <t:title>Test p:add-attribute #001</t:title>

  <t:input port='source'>
    <document>
      <title>Some Title</title>
      <para>Some paragraph.</para>

    </document>
  </t:input>

  <t:pipeline>
    <p:pipeline name="pipeline">
      <p:add-attribute match="title" attribute-name="foo"
attribute-value="bar"/>
    </p:pipeline>
  </t:pipeline>

  <t:output port="result">

    <document>
      <title foo="bar">Some Title</title>
      <para>Some paragraph.</para>
    </document>
  </t:output>

</t:test>

I'd like to create an XProc pipeline to process this test document but
in order to do so I'd need a p:eval-pipeline step that had the ability
to take the pipeline declared in t:pipeline, and apply it to the t:input
document. It could have the following signature:

<p:declare-step type="p:eval-pipeline">		
     <p:input port="source"/>
     <p:input port="pipeline"/>
     <p:input port="parameters" kind="parameter"/>
     <p:output port="result"/>
</p:declare-step>

All that I'd then need to do is use the p:compare step to check that the
t:input document fragment matched the result from the p:eval-pipeline
step.

I imagine that this feature would be a cinch for an EXProc extension
and, in the fullness of time, I'll be implementing it in my own XProc
processor 'Half-pipe'.



Regards

Philip Fennell

>XML Developer (The Forge)
>
>BBC Future Media & Technology
>Media Village, 201 Wood Lane London W12 7TP
>BC4 C4, Broadcast Centre
>
>T:	0208 0085318

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Received on Wednesday, 11 March 2009 08:31:16 UTC