Re: Schemas in XSLT 2.0 (Was: Re: [xsl] keys and idrefs - XSLT2 request?)

At 4:12 PM +0100 10/10/01, Jeni Tennison wrote:

>So, the first question is whether XSLT 2.0 should mandate support of
>XML Schema within XSLT processors (i.e. you've got to be able to
>validate against XML Schema in order to be a conformant XSLT 2.0
>processor). 

I propose something even more radical. Drop schemas completely from XPath 2.0/XSLT 2.0. First do everything that can be done without considering schemas; e.g. better grouping, multiple document output, XHTML output method, text inclusions, explicit matching of default namespaces, etc.  This could be implemented and finished much more quickly, and would be useful in and of itself.

Then, and only then, begin work on XPath 3.0/XSLT 3.0 which would consider only issues relevant to PSVI support. By this time we might actually have some schema aware APIs to build on top of. 

Furthermore this would also make XSLT 2.0 and 3.0 a lot easier to teach and learn because it would be more obvious what depended on what. You wouldn't, for example, have to learn schemas in order to support multiple output documents. 
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
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|          The XML Bible, 2nd Edition (Hungry Minds, 2001)           |
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Received on Sunday, 14 October 2001 16:42:30 UTC