Re: Re Numbering

Hi Wendell

and thanks for the reply.

I don't have specific code for this problem other than a stylesheet I
generated which was 0.5MB in size!  I don't really wish to inflict this on
the newsgroup.  Anyway this is not a problem specific to one stylesheet.  It
is a general problem that I may have to deal with in a large number of
varying circumstances.  What I was wondering (I suppose) in essence is: is
there some sort of variable storage container for a Stylesheet?  One that
you can write to and read from at various parts of the template.  Pointers
in the right direction would be appreciated.

You mentioned xsl:number.  Do you know where would be the best place to get
info on that?  I failed to find it on www.w3.org.

Thanks for any info

Mark





----- Original Message -----
From: "Wendell Piez" <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 5:52 PM
Subject: Re:  Re Numbering


> Hi Mark,
>
> At 08:14 AM 3/30/2004, you wrote:
> >I have a requirement in an xslt stylesheet to set numbered headings for
> >various parts of the stylesheet.  Certain parts are included within
> >conditional statements and are omitted if the conditions are not met.
This
> >has knock on consequences for the remainder of the numbered headings so,
fo
> >example, if there are 12 parts and part 10 is omitted, parts 11 and 12
> >become parts 10 & 11.
>
> Okay.
>
> >To achieve this I am wrapping every numbered heading in conditional
> >statements.  These statements apply the same conditionality that results
or
> >may result in the omission of an earlier part and sets the number of the
> >heading accordingly.  This works, but is very cumbersome.
>
> There may be more succinct ways to do this. xsl:apply-templates and
> xsl:for-each instructions can easily include conditional logic, so when
> they are in play (and when are they not? ;-), explicit conditionals
> (xsl:choose / xsl:if) can often be avoided. (Show us your code.)
>
> >Does xsl support some sort of marker that can be incremented as you go
> >along, so that after the first header is rendered the marker can be
> >incremented by 1 or if there is a conditional statement the marker can be
> >incremented/decremented as required.
>
> No, but
>
> (a) using techniques similar to those just mentioned, you can often avoid
> using a counter -- there are other, XSLT-simpler ways to achieve the same
> thing. For example, the xsl:number instruction takes a match pattern in
its
> 'count' attribute. Since match patterns can include predicates,
conditional
> logic can easily be included to filter the things you are counting.
>
> (b) when or if those techniques really fail, there are workarounds
possible:
>    * processing the data in two passes can make the problem go away
>    * in really tight situations, "counters" or what passes for counters
can be
>      implemented by hand, though this is almost never really necessary
>
> But what is actually possible depends on the particular conditions for
> which you need to test.
>
> One complication of this problem is that XSLT is declarative, and is
> designed so the programmer does not (generally) need to be concerned with
> the specifics of flow control. As long as the output comes out as
> specified, you never know: your processor could be going in reverse from
> what you think.
>
> >I have had a quick look at the fo:marker and I'm not sure whether it is
the
> >sort of tool for what I need, but anyway it must be the descendant of a
> >fo:flow and this causes me a problem as my marker needs to be carried
over
> >from one flow to another.
>
> I am not sure the problem belongs on the formatting layer: it sounds like
> an XSLT problem to me. (Without seeing the specifics I can't be really
> certain.)
>
> >I hope the above is not too confusing.  I should probably also add that I
am
> >using FOP.
>
> It never hurts!
>
> Show us a bit of code: I'm sure someone can help.
>
> Cheers,
> Wendell
>
>
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> Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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