[xsl] RE: Re: Re: How to pass search path as variable and get back node list.

[Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev at yahoo dot com>]

I said:
> Instead of looking for a vendor:evaluate() function, a better
approach
> is to use DOM and change a skeleton stylesheet before the
> transformation is applied, by setting the value of the "select"
> attribute of a certain global variable to the string XPath expression
> that is necessary to evaluate.

Mike replied:
------------
I would disagree.

Firstly, I think if you're going to modify the stylesheet before use,
you
should do it using XSLT rather than using DOM.

Secondly, I think xx:evaluate() is preferable in many cases because you
don't lose the benefits of stylesheet compilation; it is also less
error-prone (most attempts I have seen to modify stylesheets end up
with a
horrible dependency between the stylesheet source code and the script
that
modifies it, which gives you a maintenance nightmare). The only
drawback of
xx:evaluate() is portability.



We agree on the "what" is to be done -- using a skelton stylesheet. How
it could be best done is not so important, and Mike is probably quite
right that a stylesheet transformation to modify a skeleton stylesheet
may be preferrable to using DOM in many cases.

We also agree on the drawback of using vendor:evaluate() -- lack of
portability, although for me this is more serious -- I'd call it
dependence on a certain vendour.

If this feature is really so important the best solution would be to
provide it in a vendour-independent way (e.g. as part of a pure XSLT
1.0 function/template library).


Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev.

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