RE: Formal parameters for stylesheets

I second both these 'requirements'.

Perhaps the XSL parameters could be via a PI? e.g.
<?xml-stylesheet-parameters a="b" c="d" ?>



>
>
> Getting a couple of things off of my chest:
>
> --
>
> XSL stylesheets should be able to take formal parameters that control
> their behavior. Those parameters could be specified on the command line,
> in a browse dialog or in the stylesheet association link/processing
> instruction.
>
> DSSSL specifications almost always take formal parameters but the hacks
> that people have invented to allow them are all ...er... gross. People do
> things like automatically generating stylesheet bits, changing their
> document instance and so forth. That's ingenuity but it isn't what we
> should be forced to do.
>
> The only one that is not gross is overriding the value of a variable from
> outside. The problem with that mechanism is that there is no way that a
> GUI or command line tool can know which variables are supposed to be
> overriden and which ones are not. They just must "trust the user." It also
> means that a GUI cannot *prompt* for the appropriate paramaters.
>
> ---
>
> Let me also point out that it is absolutely vital that XSL be able to work
> with a hyperlinked web of document trees. One document at a time is NOT
> good enough by any stretch of the imagination. (similar hacks must be
> divised to work around this limitation in transformation languages that
> exhibit it)
>
>
Jonathan Borden
http://jabr.ne.mediaone.net


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