Re: [xsl] statically known namespaces

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:22 AM 7/10/2006, Nic wrote:
> > Why is it that XQuery has inbuilt namespaces such as "xs", but 
> XSLT does not?
> >
> > I would have thought that XSLT 2.0 could benefit from having "xsl" and
> > "xs" predefined, any thoughts?
>
> Oh yes.
>
> It was my biggest problem when learning XSLT and now I know it really
> well it turns out it still is: why do I have to remember all that
> template? I can't remember passwords let alone NS URIs.
>
> I know I can have a bit of template code but that's not the
> point... good editors are not always available when you're doing
> things.

For all my arcane knowledge of XSLT, I don't think being able to 
recite the namespace by heart is something I can actually do. This is 
a bit of information scattered copiously throughout my 
brain-prostheses, but not securely stored in my actual head. Probably 
that'll bite me some day.

(Now, were I to have to remember and get it wrong, a really friendly 
processor would tell me not only that no stylesheet was available, 
but also what namespace it was looking for.)

I like that the binding isn't hard-coded. It makes it possible to 
switch prefixes around, which is sometimes useful and always a good 
lesson for XMLers, who need to understand at least the basics of namespaces.

Cheers,
Wendell