RE: [xsl] XML apparently cannot be used for general text markup: whitespace gripe

["Andrew Welch" <awelch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>  <?xml version="1.0"?>
>  <book>
>     <par>
>      Is his name really <first>John</first>      <last>Doe</last>?
>    </par>
>  </book>
>
> Either you will end up with:
>    "Is his name really JohnDoe?"
>  which is wrong, or:
>    "Is his name really John Doe ?"
>  which is also wrong.

I recently had a discussion about mixed-content nodes and whether they were
acceptable or something to be avoided.  There were several points for and
against, with no real 'winning' conclusion.  This point highlights another
of the problems with mixed content nodes, but its difficult to see how this
inline markup can be replaced.  I have always believed mixed content should
be avoided where possible, but I have a few questions:

1- Is there a concensus on this issue?  Is it really a problem?

2- From an xsl processing perspective, is text node processing (such as
text()[1]) equivalent to normal element processing?

3- Should this problem be dealt with at xml level, or should it not matter
to the xsl developer?


Tia

cheers
andrew


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