Questions about Xalan

Dear list,

I have some queries about XSLT, specifically as processed in Xalan.  I
am, as you will gather, new to this, and I am finding it a wee bit
difficult.

1) I have found that including a default namespace declaration in the
DTD of an xml file results in nothing being recognized.  If I remove the
declaration from the DTD, but leave it in the xml, processing proceeds
smoothly.

In the FAQ, there is a comment about the equivalence of default and
prefixed namespaces (where the definition is identical), and that seems
to imply that I should define a prefixed namespace in the xsl, which
will then match on the defaulted Qnames (is that right?) in the xml and
DTD.  I haven't tried this.  Is it corect, and if so, why does the
default not work?

2) I am processing two xml documents in a single .xsl.  I access the
second through a document() function.  This is the first document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<!DOCTYPE dummy SYSTEM "dummy.dtd" [
]>

<dummy>
  <a name="aname">
    <b name="bname">
      <c name="cname">
	This is the c text
      </c>
    </b>
  </a>
</dummy>


This is the second, called x.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<!DOCTYPE dummy SYSTEM "dummy.dtd" [
]>

<dummy>
  <x name="xname">
    <y name="yname">
      <z name="zname">
	This is the z text
      </z>
    </y>
  </x>
</dummy>

In the xsl file, I set up a variable with the document call like so:

  <xsl:variable name="xdoc" select=
		"document('x.xml#xpointer(id($zname))')"/>

I invoke this with:
    <xsl:apply-templates select="$xdoc" mode="xmode"/>


The zname variable has been set up like so:
  <xsl:variable name="zname">zname</xsl:variable>  (a)

Leaving aside the fact that Xalan does not seem to process XPointer
fragments successfully, this combination works when the time comes to
access x.xml.  However, if I define the zname variable like this:
  <xsl:variable name="zname" select= "zname"/>      (b)
it doesn't work.

On the other hand, if I define it like this:
  <xsl:variable name="zname" select= "string('zname')"/>   (c)
it works again.

Does the select with a Qname immediately try to find and return a
node-set, whereas the string function forces the type of the select?  Is
the result tree fragment of method (a) automatically interpreted as a
string?

If I define the xdoc variable using a result tree fragment, as in:
  <xsl:variable name =
		"xdoc">document('x.xml#xpointer(id("zname"))')</xsl:variable>
then when I invoke as above, it fails.  If I set some debugging, I get:
XPATH: Can not convert #UNKNOWN to a NodeList!

Can anyone clarify these things for me?

Yours faithfully,
Peter
-- 
 __ /__   Peter B. West  pbwest@xxxxxxxxxxxx
   /     http://www.powerup.com.au/~pbwest
  /     "Lord, to whom shall we go?"


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