In Appendix F of the XSLT 2.0 WD, there's a proposal for an optional feature
of XSLT processors, in which lexical information, such as entity definitions
and references, could be provided to stylesheets. As specified, however, I
think it might be too much effort for stylesheet writers to take advantage
of this feature without completely depending on it. In fact, even if one
does depend on it, it still seems quite cumbersome to use.
I think, as a user, I'd rather see a "lexical" XPath axis (pair?), to let me
hop back & forth between the tree w/ the lexical constructs and without. I
think this would be much easier to use, and its use could be better
encapsulated within a small number of templates.
I envision that the "lexical" XPath axis could be an optional feature of
XPath 2.0, just as support of the lexical constructs are proposed as an
optional feature of XSLT processors.
Does anyone like this idea or see any fundamental problems with it? Perhaps
it's too late for XSLT/XPath 2.0, but I really think it's the most sensible
approach to dealing with lexical information (particularly entity
references).
Matthew Gruenke
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