Re: [xsl] Newbie question, commenting out an element

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Doug,

At 01:39 PM 12/21/2008, you wrote:
> Thank you ... I had thought of using perl. In fact the transformation
> script is a perl script that first converts from SGML to XML and then
> changes graphic names and bunch of other strings. The problem for me
> with perl is that I have to do more work to handle items, like
> elements starting on one line and finishing on another. I wanted to
> move from my serial and string based approach to XSL thinkin' I could
> get my skills more current and do more with less effort.

This is true, and the fact that you've happened on a counter-example 
doesn't disprove it in the general case.

Extension functions like Saxon's parse() and serialize() allow you to 
cross the line that XSLT draws between string processing and tree 
transformation. Similarly, many processors have various ways of 
calling out to external utilities. But part of the issue here is that 
your requirement implicitly asks for a change in the XML text stream 
(write comment delimiters around a chunk of tags-and-text), not in 
the tree that results from parsing it. (Even using saxon:serialize() 
you may not get precisely the same tagging inside the comment as you 
had before your file was parsed.) Accordingly, a clean solution would 
work on that level. For example, a SAX filter could perform your task 
simply and fast.

Cheers,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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