Subject: RE: [xsl] Purpose of generate-id index [1] From: "Michael Kay" <mhk@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 09:23:20 +0100 |
> >>In general terms why is the [1] index present. > > As you noticed, it is redundant. Two reasons why it is still > commonly used: 1. Make it explicit to human readers that the > first element > of the node set returned by key() is used. Not everybody > has always all details of the spec at hand. > 2. Moderatly clever processors might take the index as a clue > not to construct the whole node set, which can save time and > memory. Really clever processors could take the same clue > from the presence of the generate-id() function of course, > but the former is still a bit easier to implement and also > more worth to do because the optimization is also an improvement > in many more situations. > A third reason, better than either of these: when you move to XSLT 2.0, and switch off "backwards compatibility" mode, it will become an error to supply a sequence of nodes to a function that's designed to handle only one. So if you really want to process just the first node, you have to say so. Michael Kay XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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