I have the same problem when storing XSLT documents in eXist-db. 
Attribute normalization also kills whitespace there because the spec 
says whitespace should be ignored in attribute values (and eXist-db 
normalizes against the spec). Isn't it about time to change the spec in 
this respect?

Pieter

On 28/07/2020 23:18, Willem Van Lishout willemvanlishout@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> Like many of you, I assume, I use a version control system when 
> working on XSLT projects. I'm working together with multiple people, 
> and we run the code through an XML formatter before checking it in to 
> avoid formatting differences showing up in the diffs.
>
> The problem is that, due to attribute value normalization, carriage 
> returns are removed from attribute nodes during XML parsing. When 
> using long XPath expressions (and this has become very common in XSLT 
> 3, especially with higher order functions), which are split in 
> multiple lines, this results in huge single line outputs which are 
> impossible to read.
>
> It seems any sort of XML processing will irreversibly transform the 
> whitespace, therefore I have to choose between:
> - No formatting
> - Formatting using non-XML tools?
> - Finding a parser that bends the rules...
>
> Have any of you experienced the same problem and did you find a solution?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Willem Van Lishout
> willemvanlishout@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:willemvanlishout@xxxxxxxxx>
>
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Pieter Lamers
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