Re: evaluate() function in XPath 2.0 (Was: Re: [xsl] Lookup (?))

Subject: Re: evaluate() function in XPath 2.0 (Was: Re: [xsl] Lookup (?))
From: Jeni Tennison <jeni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 18:55:32 +0000
Oleg Tkachenko wrote:
>> Well said! However, I'm going to play the devil's advocate here. Would
>> an 'evaluate' function have different capabilities depending on how it 
>> was implemented? Or would each implementation have the same feature-set?
>> What I am driving at is that it is possible that by standardizing the 
>> evaluate function, creativity and innovation may be stifled; however, 
>> if they will all do pretty much the same thing, just in a different way 
>> and with different syntax, then I'm all for standardizing it.
>
> It's a job for exslt effort, I think.

EXSLT defines an evaluate() function (see
http://www.exslt.org/dyn/functions/evaluate), though it was only added
fairly recently.

But the main problem here is adoption - defining a common namespace
and definition for an extension function doesn't help address the
problem of writing portable stylesheets unless implementers adopt that
common namespace and definition. There are still major XSLT processors
that don't implement even those EXSLT extension functions that are
fairly widely adopted and uncontentious in their definition (such as
exsl:node-set()).

I think the reality is that the only thing that will make processors
adopt the same namespace for an evaluate() function is if it were
defined by the W3C (whether part of XSLT 2.0 or not).

Cheers,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/


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