Re: [xslt] XSLT 2.0

[Steve Ball <Steve Ball explain com au>]

OK. So we've established that noone has enough time to do this, but  
we'd like it done anyway.

Last night I was going through the XPath 2 and XSLT 2 specs (as you  
do... they are good bed-time reading) and I reckon that given the  
existing libxml2/libxslt codebase as a starting point hopefully its  
not too bad. Some of the functionality is already in EXSLT and will  
need to be migrated across into the core libraries (eg, exslt:node- 
set, exslt:document, date-time functions, etc). See below for a quick  
appraisal of what new features are required.

My overall plan is to work out what are the low hanging fruit and deal  
with those first. Then look at the more pervasive changes.  
Accordingly, functionality is gong to be delivered incrementally.

I've started writing up an element-by-element implementation matrix,  
which I will post to a website/wiki soon.

Here's the list of new features:

Features for libxml2

* data type changes: support sequences
* syntax changes: support FLWR, conditional, quantified expressions  
and expressions involving type
* implement operators and functions

Features for libxslt

* support XPath data types: support sequences
* sequence constructors: create document nodes, sequence construction
* multiple result trees
* user-defined functions
* tunnelling parameters, parameter and variable data typing
* deep copy
* grouping
* regular expressions
* reading text files
* date-time formatting
* validation
* serialisation: character maps
* Implement xsl:use-when attribute
* XHTML output method
* perform-sort, sort collations
* next-match
* multi-mode templates

Cheers,
Steve Ball

On 18/06/2008, at 6:51 PM, Tony Graham wrote:

> (Sorry to take a while to respond, but it's been busy here.)
>
> On Tue, Jun 10 2008 01:31:05 +0100, Steve Ball explain com au wrote:
> > On 06/06/2008, at 7:18 AM, Tony Graham wrote:
> > > On Thu, Jun 05 2008 07:57:07 +0100, Steve Ball explain com au wrote:
> ...
> > > There probably are enough libxslt users that there would be quite a
> > > few
> > > of those users who could gainfully contribute, but that raises the
> > > question of why there aren't more than the dedicated few currently
> > > working on libxslt.
> >
> > That's the same with many (most?) open source projects...
>
> Yes.  I have a semi-coherent theory about a log relationship between
> numbers of users and interested users and between them and people who
> can provide code.
>
> ...
> > See above. There's a bit of up-front design work to be done.
> ...
> > > > Who is willing to help out with this effort?
> > >
> > > I would be willing, but I have other commitments on my open source
> > > free
> > > time.
> >
> > Don't we all... ;-)
>
> So how do we proceed?  It's not going to get very far if it's just you
> and me moaning about not having enough free time.  I'm sure a poll of
> people on this list (or of people you meet on the street) would show
> that most people feel they don't have enough free time.
>
> It seems to me that it's still a bit premature to say "let's just  
> make a
> wiki and thrash out the design", even if someone were to stump up for
> some non-free time.
>
> Daniel, if I may ask, in an ideal world, how would you like to see an
> XSLT 2.0 version of libxslt be developed?
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Tony Graham                         Tony Graham MenteithConsulting com
> Director                                  W3C XSL FO SG Invited Expert
> Menteith Consulting Ltd
> XML, XSL and XSLT consulting, programming and training
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