RE: Upgrading to XSLT 2.0

> My question: How easy/painful is this processor/language upgrade?
> Based on my readings, seems like XSL processors are mostly
> backward compatible to deal with version="1.0" code, but what
> is the list experience with this transition?
>
> Please forgive if this question seems a bit naove

In my experience (a) it's unusual to hit any problems if you use
backwards-compatibility mode, unless your stylesheet is using vendor
extensions; (b) it's normal to hit one or two things that throw an error
when you change to using version="2.0", but these are generally quickly
fixed (and sometimes reveal problems in your code that ought to have been
fixed anyway). Quickly, that is, if you understand the 2.0 type system - if
you're learning 2.0 and converting your application at the same time, then
the errors can be a bit confusing.

> Do versions of
> Java and other server-based software have an impact on making
> this upgrade?

No, not generally. There's always a possibility of configuration problems
when you make changes to a complex environment, especially if it was only
working "by accident" before (e.g. hidden dependencies on the order of JARs
on your classpath) but that's nothing specific to the the 2.0 upgrade.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/