Subject: Re: Re: [xsl] Evaluating XPath expressions found in the source document From: Mark Galbreath <mgalbrea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 9:27:59 EDT |
Good topic - keep it going! Mark > > From: "Michael Beddow" <mbnospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: 2001/08/16 Thu AM 06:30:38 EDT > To: "Jeni Tennison" <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Subject: Re: [xsl] Evaluating XPath expressions found in the source document > > On Thursday, August 16, 2001 10:56 AM > Jeni Tennison wrote: > > > No, it is an XPath expression, consisting of a single function call. I > > think that the terminology confusion comes because XPath sounds as > > though it's just about paths, but actually location paths are just one > > type of expression (albeit the most common). Expressions cover > > anything that you can put in the select attribute of xsl:value-of, so > > include arithmetic and function calls. > > Hi Jeni! > > So it *was* ignorance, as I suspected. But now it's replaced by deep > confusion and anxiety about the notion of a function that seems to exist > divorced from any mechanism for implementing it (talking "functions" in > the loose computer language sense, not the mathematical one). I > understand now that those functions are part of the XPath spec, not the > XSLT spec, but surely they still have to be implemented by the XSLT > processor, and I took the query to be about implementation, not > specification. > > I mean, the subset of XPath expressions I had mistakenly taken to be the > entire set are simply abstract notations of how to identify a node from > a known starting point. All they need in the real world is a possibility > of there being a instance of a tree that fits them. But concat(), though > it too is an abstraction, is one whose realisation requires a machine > somewhere that knows how to do things to the data. And where is that > machine, if not in the XSLT processor? But if that is in indeed where it > is, how is format-number() different from concat() in terms of what can > actually be done to what and where? > > What struck me about the original query, as I (mis)understood it, was > that it seemed to be aiming for a LISP-like interchangeability of > programming instructions and data, which I didn't think XSLT was up to. > > Sorry if my ramblings are off-topic. Perhaps they should be off-list, > too. But maybe other people are as muddled about this as I obviously am > and need the same sort of help. > > Michael > --------------------------------------------------------- > Michael Beddow http://www.mbeddow.net/ > XML and the Humanities page: http://xml.lexilog.org.uk/ > --------------------------------------------------------- > > > XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list > > XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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