[xsl] Incremental Processing Guidelines

[David Neumann <dneumann@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have a pretty huge XML file to transform, so I want to be sure 
to craft my XSLT sheet to enable the incremental features of an 
XSLT processor if that's possible. I've been using both Saxon 6.x 
and Xalan-Java 2.4.

I've found stuff in the Xalan-Java 2.4 FAQ and in the archives of 
this list; but the info I've gathered so far is anecdotal or 
authoritative but limited. For example, I know that using using 
counts and sorts are incompatible with incremental processing.  
From a earlier exchange this year on this list I saw that 
apparently using an xpath of "preceding::something" instead of 
"../something" may be required for incremental processing. Plus 
I've seen a few other tidbits.

One thing I'd like to use in particular is an xsl:if, but I 
gather that may be a no-no?

Anyway, if there is a more authoritative list of guidelines or a 
more complete set of rules of thumb, that would be a big help.

Of course, if the current answer is just trial and error, that's 
also good to know.  But if I do have to go that route, is there a 
way to get debugging output from Xalan or Saxon so I know where 
the processor is in the XML file when it starts pushing output 
from translations?  I've used extensions for Java callbacks in my 
XSLT so I get nice feedback when either Xalan or Saxon start 
transforming; it's just hard to tell whether they've sucked all 
or part of the source XML. Now if I use a really huge XML file as 
source for my iterative testing, I can always watch the VM memory 
consumption and tell that way; but it would be nice to do my 
trial and error with a smaller file.

Thanks!

d


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