[xsl] not() function behaving differently in java 1.4 and 1.5 environment.

["Tandon, Rohit" <Rohit.Tandon@xxxxxx>]

Hi,

We have recently upgraded our application from java 1.4 to java 1.5.
There is an XSL file for HTML conversion which is acting differently in
the java upgraded version.

On a dry run we found the value of variable ($value) is null.  The
matrix below explains different test scenarios in which we ran the test
changing java version and replacing not($value) with $value=''.

Java Version					Syntax Used
Test Result
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
 1.4				<xsl:when test="not($value) and
position() = 1">YES</xsl:when>		   True
 1.4				<xsl:when test="$value = '' and
position() = 1">YES</xsl:when>	                      False
 1.5				<xsl:when test="not($value) and
position() = 1">YES</xsl:when>	            False
 1.5				<xsl:when test="$value  = '' and
position() = 1">YES</xsl:when>	            True

The first test case is what the xsl originally looked like. The same
test fails in java 1.5 environment. Interestingly changing the not()
function with operator = (see test# 4), the xsl works fine.

We have a couple of questions for this behavior:

*	Is the change in behavior due to upgrading the java environment
or we are missing something else?
*	Is there a difference in how a null and an empty string('') are
interpreted in java 1.4 and java 1.5?
*	Are the semantics of the statements we are using for not() and
the = operator equivalent?
*	Does XSL distinguish between null value and an empty string
('')?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Regards
Rohit