I decided it was worth looking at whether C14N can be offered as an XSLT
serialization option (saxon:canonical="yes") and it seems easy enough. The
main changes needed to the existing XML serializer seem to be:

(a) <empty></empty> for empty elements

(b) sorting of namespaces alphabetically (by prefix, though the spec seems
unclear)

(c) sorting of attributes by name - equivalent to the existing Saxon 9.8
option saxon:attribute-order="".

(d) inserting newlines before/after top-level comments and processing
instructions.

Are there any other implications anyone knows of?

Michael Kay
Saxonica

> On 10 Apr 2018, at 14:12, Geert Bormans geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I am evaluating whether I should make C14N part of an XSLT chain or have
something like XMLStarlet at the end of the process.
>
> I believe that by the book, I can not guarantee an XML serialisation from an
XSLT renders a canonical XML, can I?
> To me things like <foo></foo> instead of <foo/> are impossible to force, or
did I missed something?
> (I am aware of some undocumented tricks that help me force this in some
processors, but that is no guarantee for a long lasting solution)
>
> I am leaning towards using a C14N dedicated tooling, but the files are big
and XSLT streaming would help
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Geert
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