Processing Instruction names: specifically, xml-stylesheet

XSLT Section 7.3 states that <xsl:processing-instruction> cannot be used to
output a PI unless its name is both an NCName and a PITarget.

XML production rule 26 says that a PITarget is a Name other than one
beginning with the letters "xml" in either upper or lower case. But the text
says in effect that names beginning "xml" are allowed if they have been
standardized in "this or future versions of this specification".

"Associating Style Sheets with XML documents Version 1.0" introduces the PI
<?xml-stylesheet?> which violates this rule, unless one interprets that
document as a future version of the XML specification.

Is it intended that an XSLT processor should be able to output an
<?xml-stylesheet?> PI, or not? (It's actually a useful thing to do, because
it allows you to use XSLT for transformation and then CSS for rendition).

What if other reserved PITarget names are introduced in "this or future
versions of [the XML] specification"?

Mike Kay

Received on Tuesday, 30 November 1999 14:33:37 UTC