RE: [xsl] extensions and XSLT 2.0

["Michael Kay" <mhk@xxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> I've got some questions about element/instruction extensions in the 
> specification of XSLT 2.0.
> The definition concerning the data mapping between XPath types and 
> java/ecmascript... types, described in the version 1.1 has 
> disappeared. 

The decision to abandon the attempt to define language bindings for
extension functions was made a long time ago, and documented in the XSLT
2.0 requirements. There were a number of reasons for the decision. The
fact that the XSLT 1.1 draft supported Java and ECMAScript, and no other
languages, was very sensitive politically, both with vendors and with
users. If you look in the archives of this list you will find the
evidence of the user side of this, though it was probably the vendor
side that influenced the working group to make the decision. Another
factor was that it was becoming clear that XSLT 2.0 would have a much
richer type system, and that bindings between Java types and XML Schema
types were not a local matter for the XSL WG to define on its own.

The decision at the time was that standardized language bindings, e.g.
for Java, would be useful, but they should not be done within W3C and
should not be part of the XSLT specification. Eventually I hope that
they might become part of JAXP.

Michael Kay


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