Re: On side effects

[Vivek Agrawala <vivek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Roland Orre wrote:

> In may case I had just one simple selection variable telling which language
> flow to use in the printed output with a variable *language* being set to
> 'swedish or 'english. In this case I had to use two different DSSSL-scripts
> where this variable was defined to one or the other.
	You could also use an 'external-specification' with
	<style-specification use=swedish>
	....
	<style-specification use=english>
	....

> OK. It is not completely free from side effects as it actually produces
> an output.
	That is an interesting way to look at it.  However, each
  DSSSL function also produces a return value, so the final
  output could be considered (the text representation of) the
  DSSSL script's return value.

	What about the setting of inherited characteristics?
  Can that be considered a side-effect?


-- Vivek Agrawala, Ph.D.
Siemens Corporate Research, Inc.	email: vivek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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