Re: Functional programming in XSLT (revised)

Hi Alexey,

Just a couple of comments.

> The <fxsl:function> declarations are allowed at any place, where
> <xsl:variable> declarations are allowed. In particular, function
> declarations can be top-level or local to a template. Furthermore,
> function declarations may be embedded into another function
> declarations.

I was thinking about this after reading your last proposal - local
function declarations in the same way as you get local variables.  I
quite like it (it has a symmetry) but I couldn't think of why I'd ever
need it.  Have you got a use case in mind?  Or is it to make the
lambda thing easier?

> 3. Conditional operator in XPath
> --------------------------------
>
> The conditional operator is added to XPath. The proposed syntax is
>
> if TEST then CONSEQUENT else ATERNATE
>
> where "if", "then" and "else" are "reserved words", and "TEST",
> "CONSEQUENT" and "ALTERNATE" are XPath expressions.

David had this syntax for a while and I bugged him mercilessly about
it.  He changed it to:

  if (TEST) then (CONSEQUENT) else (ALTERNATE)

when he identified that:

  if $test then / else /foo

would be parsed as:

  if $test then (/else/foo)

and cause an error in the XPath parser despite the fact that it's a
perfectly legal conditional operator.

Cheers,

Jeni

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



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