Re: "*|@*|text()" vs. "node()"

Hi Jörg,

Jörg Heinicke wrote:
> 
> I want to shorten/improve my XSL-code, but a problem occures. Until now I
> had a stylesheet like the following:
> 
> <xsl:template match="*|@*|text()">
>    <xsl:copy>
>      <xsl:apply-templates select="*|@*|text()"/>
>    </xsl:copy>
> </xsl:template>
> 
Take a look at the XSLT spec for the "identity transform"
(http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt.html#copying). Their identity transform uses 

	<xsl:template match="@*|node()">

Then look under patterns and you find the XSLT definition of the node()
test:

	node() matches any node other than an attribute node and the root node

which is slightly confusing since the XPath spec defines it as:

	A node test node() is true for any node of any type whatsoever.

So then maybe it isn't the match that's wrong, maybe it's the select -
so look under attribute in XPath
(http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116#attribute-nodes)

	Each element node has an associated set of attribute nodes; the element
is the parent of each of these attribute nodes; however, an attribute
node is not a child of its parent element.

So <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/> is short for
<xsl:apply-templates select="child::node()"/>, and attributes aren't on
the child axis of their parent element.

So you should be able to re-write the XSLT identity transform as 

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

but that *doesn't* work - it drops attributes - so I guess the XSLT
definition of node() applies rather than the XPath one.

Francis.

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