RE: [xsl] normalize-space problems with child elements

["Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You have to face facts: the spaces adjacent to a <code> element are
significant, so you can't use a function like normalize-space() that
destroys them. I don't think there are any short-cuts here.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jelks Cabaniss [mailto:jelks@xxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 29 March 2005 18:39
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [xsl] normalize-space problems with child elements
> 
> I'm using the text output method to create a man page.
> 
> In my source XML, I have `<description>` elements which 
> contain text and
> `<code>` child elements.  `<description>` is "pretty printed" 
> (indented and
> with line breaks) which is easily fixed with 
> "normalize-space".  So far so
> good.  But that does weird stuff to the `<code>` child elements -- it
> removes the space before and after the `<code>foo</code>` so 
> that the word
> "foo" adjoins the surrounding text in the description output.
> 
> Example:
> 
>     <description>This decribes how <code>FOO</code> is
>     supposed to work.  Now "<code>bar</code>" is a 
>     different story altogether.</description>
> 
> ...
> 
>     <xsl:template match="description">
>       <xsl:apply-templates />
>     </xsl:template>
> 
>     <xsl:template match="code">
>       <xsl:apply-templates />
>     </xsl:template>
> 
>     <xsl:template match="text()">
>       <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)" />
>     </xsl:template>
> 
> 
> Output:
> 
>     This decribes howFOOis supposed to work.
>     Now "bar" is a different story altogether.
> 
> 
> Since "bar" was surrounded by quotes and not whitespace, it 
> worked.  But see
> how "FOO" was mangled by "normalize-space"?  
> 
> If I change the `code` template to add spaces before and 
> after, it fixes
> "FOO", but breaks "bar":
> 
>     <xsl:template match="code">
>       <xls:text> </xls:text>
>         <xsl:apply-templates />
>       <xls:text> </xls:text>
>     </xsl:template>
> 
> Is there a way to do this without involving a complex template with
> substring processing, etc.?
> 
> 
> /Jelks