[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: How to declaratively describe a mapping that invol
> Bonus points if you can also answer this question: > > Computer Science Theory Question: If it is impossible to declaratively express the above mapping, does that mean there is a limit to declarative descriptions? Is the set of declarative descriptions smaller than the set of procedural descriptions? > My computer science theory is very rusty, but I don't think that "declarative" and "procedural" have formal definitions that you can appeal to. A distinction you might make is between rules expressed in first order predicate calculus, and rules that require recursion. But "first order predicate calculus" doesn't prescribe a particular set of arithmetic or string operators. The expression `<magneticVariationValue>concat(substring($magVar,2,3),'.',substring($magVar, 5,1))</magneticVariationValue>` is only procedural in the sense that it is written in a Turing complete language. If you regard it as being written in a language that is much smaller than XPath, does that make it more declarative? For a reductio ad absurdum, consider 2+2. Declarative or procedural? Michael Kay Saxonica
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