[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Trimming (formatting-only) leading tabs/spaces from XS
Say, (hypothetically) there was an XSLT-based system that included an editor that (if used) needed to trim leading tabs/spaces from XSLT when first loading a file, so as to provide a continously formatted view of the XSLT code as it was edited. Provided that this was done relatively reliably (i.e. without trimming significant tab and space characters) and predictably, would this cause significant problems in an XSLT development, test or production environment? So, would other editors, viewers, diff-tools, version-control systems, auto-documentation systems etc. be adversely affected? If such formatting characters needed to be added again, would it be best just to add them when required (letting the consumer choose the formatting style)? I ask, because the popular consensus seems to be that trimming non-XSLT code of formatting characters in this way would be a major issue. This is because of established working methods and tools that don't/won't/can't tolerate changes to whitespace (this seems to be quite an emotive issue).Now, whitespace has added significance (an understatement I think) in XML/XSLT systems. My experience (such that it is) in XSLT is that working methods and tools have therefore evolved to manage whitespace (removing it, comparing it, adding it, or ignoring it) more effectively than text-only tools, trimming XSLT of tabs/spaces therefore shouldn't be a problem and may even provide more flexibility, does this hold up in the wider XSLT world? Phil Fearon http://qutoric.com
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