RE: XSLT 2.0 *and* XSLT 1.0 validation -- how to?

> I wonder why version attribute is there in XSLT in the
> first place. In most of the languages known, like Java
> or C++, the programmer never specifies language
> version number in his/her program. The compiler or
> interpreter judges whether the syntax is valid..

I suppose the alternative would have been to put the version number in the
xml-stylesheet processing instruction or other API used for invoking the
transformation. But that seems intrinsically more error-prone.

All of this was done, I suspect, in an attempt to avoid the chaos caused on
the web by changing versions of HTML and browser incompatibilities. It needs
to be understood in that historic context.

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