Re: [xsl] Reverse axis, reverse document order, xsl:for-each

[Michael Ludwig <mlu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Kay schrieb:
> XSLT 1.0 models the result of any path expression as a set of nodes
> in no particular order. The semantics of xsl:for-each are that it
> processes this set in the order determined by its xsl:sort
> specification; the default for this is "document order".
>
> You can reverse this using <xsl:sort select="position()"
> order="descending" data-type="number"/>

Now, that's just great! Golden advice!

> The way the semantics are modelled changes significantly in XSLT 2.0,
> though of course backwards compatiblity has been retained.
>
> > Why is this so?
>
> Depends who you ask. Committees move in mysterious ways. It can be
> hard to work out why a decision was made even if you were present at
> all the meetings - which in this case, I wasn't.

Mysterious ways. Easy enough to accept. Especially with the
above-mentioned position() trick at hand. I won't question further.

> > And, last question, is there a way to have a pointer
> > (xsl:variable) to nodes in RDO without resorting to copying
> > or reconstructing?
>
> Not in 1.0: the type system only allows sets of nodes, not sequences.
> 2.0 changes that.
>
> Michael Kay

Thanks a lot, Michael!

Michael Ludwig