Re: [xsl] The identity transform and attributes

Subject: Re: [xsl] The identity transform and attributes
From: "Jesper Tverskov" <jesper@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:31:01 +0100
This thread has been interesting to follow but why propose this:

<xsl:template match="element()">
  <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*,node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="attribute()|text()|comment()|processing-instruction()">
  <xsl:copy/>
</xsl:template>

When the old way is much shorter:

<xsl:template match="@*|node()">
  <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

The old way even has the power and fascination of being just one
template, the identity template. This is how the identity template
looks in two specs, in hundreds of books, in thousands of articles and
tutorials, and in millions of XSLT stylesheets until this very day.

Why change things for the worse just to confuse people?

Cheers,
Jesper Tverskov
http://www.xmlplease.com

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