Re: [xsl] XSL template "namespace" problem

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 02:12 PM 3/29/2006, Jon wrote:
> I'd be surprised to find any processor supporting this:
> <a href="<xsl:value-of select='foo' />">some link</a>. If you can find
> one, post a small test case sample and report the bug to the
> developers.

This is quite unlikely (Jon would be justified in his surprise) 
because developers would probably have to go to extra trouble to 
support a "feature" which breaks both the letter of the XML 
Recommendation, and all current interpretations of XML. An XSLT 
stylesheet is an XML document instance, which any XML parser can 
parse. The above doesn't parse as XML.

The bug you reported here would be a bug in the XML parser that is 
applied to the stylesheet prior to its being applied, since that's 
the component that enforces well-formedness (i.e. syntax) rules like 
"no tags in attribute values" (the rule is actually stricter: no 
unescaped "<" characters at all). It would be interesting to hear any 
XML developers (of XSLT engines or other) try to make the case that 
subverting XML's stated rules regarding its "Draconian error 
handling" of such illegal constructs is a good idea. (There are 
actually application scenarios where it might be defensible -- but 
XSLT isn't one of them.)

This is why it's possible for experienced practitioners to look at 
this and say authoritatively "there's no way this could work". We 
don't have to try it since the XML parsers installed in our brains 
tell us it's a no-go.

Cheers,
Wendell



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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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