Re: [xsl] template matching with modes, not seeing what I expect

["G. Ken Holman g.ken.holman@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2020-03-16 09:58 +0000, Trevor Nicholls trevor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I'd really like to understand how to do it without counting but I 
> seem to have a mental block with some kinds of nodeset logic, plus 
> the count method will at least be instantly comprehensible if 
> somebody else has to look at this stylesheet in the future.

I disagree. If the language isn't being used properly, someone in the 
know maintaining the stylesheets will have to figure out why it 
wasn't used properly in the first place and likely will have to 
re-engineer it to do it correctly.

And by not using the language properly, you are missing out on the 
opportunities the XSLT engine can take to optimize a proper implementation.

I saw this in the classroom: it works this way, why not just use it? 
Because the language has features and facilities that promote future 
extensions of the stylesheets and extensions of the source content, 
they should be used properly. One shouldn't be projecting on their 
style of writing XSLT how other languages work when the basis of 
those other languages is very different.

At least doing so has served me and my customers well in the past.

. . . . . . Ken


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