Re: The Catalog of Vague, Draft 2

[Eduardo Gutentag <eduardo.gutentag@eng.sun.com>]

Great. I just wanted to make sure I would neither put my foot in my
mouth nor neglect to do as asked... Please feel free to post, as I'm
going to be traveling your way on Tuesday.

Eduardo



Scott_Boag@lotus.com wrote:
> 
> Eduardo, Dave and I will go over this list again Monday, and then we will
> post the draft note to the WG one final time to this list.  Then we should
> be able to post to the WG list on Tuesday.  We'll probably have to hand
> Clark a copy, since he'll probably be traveling on Tuesday.  Either of us
> can post it, it doesn't matter.
> 
> -scott
> 
> 
>                     Eduardo Gutentag
>                     <eduardo.gutentag@en        To:     David_Marston@lotus.com
>                     g.sun.com>                  cc:     XSLT-Conformance@lists.oasis-open.org, Scott_Boag@lotus.com
>                     Sent by:                    Subject:     Re: The Catalog of Vague, Draft 2
>                     Eduardo.Gutentag@eng
>                     .sun.com
> 
> 
>                     09/15/00 06:40 PM
> 
> 
> 
> I'd like to be sure I'm not making any mistakes here: does the TC want me
> (or Scott?)
> to present the following to the XSL WG in its upcoming Sept 20-22
> face-to-face
> meeting, or is it still under development? The word "attempt" below is a
> bit
> ambiguous ;-)
> 
> Eduardo
> 
> David_Marston@lotus.com wrote:
> >
> > Here is the second attempt to list all the areas where the XSLT and XPath
> > Recommendations are not precise enough for the OASIS conformance
> committee
> > (or XSLT processor developers) to tell what is correct behavior. Please
> > send corrections and additions to me. Each item has a handy (?) mnemonic
> > label.
> >
> > This list includes vague areas that we already know have been brought to
> > the WG. XPath items occur at the bottom and have "XPath-" at the start of
> > their mnemonic.
> >
> > GROUP 1. Still planned for submission to WG
> > PART 1A. Policy questions
> > [attrib-set-merge] In the process of merging same-named attribute sets,
> > must each set to be merged be individually resolved with respect to its
> own
> > attributes, including any use-attribute-sets it carries, before the
> merger
> > takes place?
> > [attrib-set-not-exist] Is an attempt to use-attribute-sets with a
> > non-existant set an error, ignorable, or developer's choice between those
> > two?
> > [copy-namespace-current] If the current node is a namespace node, is
> there
> > any discretion about where <xsl:copy/> puts it in the result? Is it
> > affected by exclude-result-prefix?
> > [copy-namespace-attribute] If xsl:copy is applied to a namespaced
> > attribute, and the namespace in question would not already be in scope in
> > the result, is there any discretion about where <xsl:copy/> puts the
> > namespace node in the result? Is it affected by exclude-result-prefix?
> > [excluded-prefix-needed] What should be the effect of an attempt to emit
> an
> > element or attribute bound to a namespace on the list of excluded
> > namespaces?
> > [fallback-top-level] Can xsl:fallback be implemented inside a top-level
> > "extension" element? If so, must it be detected and instantiated as with
> > instructions?
> > [func-system-property-namespace] What rules apply to use of either the
> > default or xsl namespaces on arguments to system-property (if the
> processor
> > developer wishes to add more properties)?
> > [key-unique-name] Since "each key name may be thought of as
> distinguishing
> > a separate, independent space of identifiers", would multiple xsl:key
> > declarations with the same key name be allowed? If so, how do the
> multiple
> > declarations interact?
> > [namespace-alias-intermediate] Should the namespace-alias be applied upon
> > first creation of the nodes? (Ref.: Kay, p. 235)
> > [namespace-alias-result-prefix] Should the result-prefix in
> > namespace-alias, if not #default, be the exact prefix used in the output?
> > [sort-NaN] Where should strings that cannot be converted to number values
> > be placed in ascending and descending numeric sorts? The relative order
> of
> > the strings is not in question, rather the question is whether they
> appear
> > in a clump before/after the lowest number, or always at the beginning or
> > end regardless of sort order.
> > [source-notations] What should the XSLT processor do about "notations" in
> > the source document? (Ref.: Kay, pp. 64-65) This question is now being
> > restricted to the effects on the tree: position(), count(), etc.
> >
> > PART 1B. Requests for explicit statements
> > [for-each-variable] Can xsl:variable inside a for-each loop be set to a
> new
> > value on every iteration? Current verbiage saying "template is
> > instantiated" may cover this, but an explicit statement is useful.
> > [func-document-second-empty] If document() is called with two arguments
> and
> > the second is an empty node-set, should the second argument be ignored?
> > [number-NaN] If xsl:number is called with a value set to positive or
> > negative infinity, or any string that cannot be converted to a number,
> how
> > should it be formatted?
> > [number-negative] Should xsl:number render a negative number (specified
> in
> > value), even in alphabetic and Roman-numeral formats?
> > [number-zero] Should xsl:number emit a zero, even in alphabetic and
> > roman-numeral formats?
> > [sort-case-order] Does the case-order attribute of xsl:sort pertain to
> > ascending order, and its opposite to descending order?
> > [XPath-ceiling-NaN] Should ceiling() of any string that cannot be
> converted
> > to a number return NaN?
> > [XPath-ceiling-negative-fraction] Should ceiling(-0.1) return positive or
> > negative zero?
> > [XPath-contains-main-empty] If the first argument to contains() is empty
> > and the second argument is non-empty, should false be returned? Given
> that
> > every string contains the empty string, does the empty string contain
> > itself? (In other words, does contains("","") return true?)
> > [XPath-floor-NaN] Should floor() of any string that cannot be converted
> to
> > a number return NaN?
> > [XPath-negative-zero-multiply] Is the product of -0 and any non-zero
> number
> > -0? Does (-0)*0 equal -0? Does (-0)*(-0) equal 0? Does (-0) div {any
> > non-zero number} equal -0?
> >
> > GROUP 2. Not so vague after all, with answers
> > [attrib-after-comment] When populating an element, should it be a
> required
> > error to invoke xsl:attribute after xsl:comment? Developer's discretion:
> > error/ignore.
> > [attrib-after-PI] When populating an element, should it be a required
> error
> > to invoke xsl:attribute after xsl:processing-instruction? Developer's
> > discretion: error/ignore.
> > [choose-unselected-when-error] The xsl:when cases in a choose must be
> > selected in document order, but a multi-threaded processor might evaluate
> > the when tests in parallel. Must the effects of all unselected when tests
> > be neutralized? Specs should not address "side effects" as long as WG
> > commits to having no side effects in any function defined in the specs.
> > Authors of extension functions should beware.
> > [func-document-self-include] Does document("") refer to the containing
> > stylesheet without included stylesheets? Yes; see the verbiage about
> > "exactly the same as if the XML document containing the stylesheet was
> the
> > initial source document" in section 12.1.
> > [include-position] Should xsl:include occurring after other top-level
> > elements (especially xsl:template, xsl:param, xsl:variable) confer all
> the
> > effects of its elements occurring later in the including stylesheet? Yes,
> > "children...replace the xsl:include element" covers it.
> > [message-full-template] The syntax of xsl:message shows content:
> template.
> > Does this include xsl:element, etc.? Since there is no explicit
> > prohibition, as there is for xsl:attribute, then anything goes.
> Downstream
> > processing may not be able to handle everything, but that's not an XSLT
> > problem. I have asked for an enhancement in this area to provide better
> > control.
> > [output-text-newline] Should treatment of new-line characters be
> prescribed
> > for the text output method? This would have to be a feature request.
> > [pattern-document] Should the document() function be explicitly banned
> from
> > match patterns? The syntax already shows that it's banned from all the
> > axis/step and NodeTest stuff, but allowed in the predicate.
> > [variable-top-level-full-template] When xsl:variable and xsl:param are
> used
> > as top-level elements, they can contain template instructions. Is there
> any
> > way in which these instructions are more restricted than the same
> > instructions in xsl:template? No, you can use xsl:element and the like.
> > Specifically, is xsl:fallback available? Yes.
> > [with-param-full-template] The syntax of with-param shows content:
> > template. Does this include xsl:element, etc.? Yes, same as xsl:variable
> > above.
> > [XPath-concat-one-node-set] If concat() is given one argument consisting
> of
> > a node-set, why not concatenate the string values of all the nodes?
> (Note:
> > some processors currently allow this.) This would have to be a feature
> > request.
> > [XPath-string-length-diacriticals] Should string-length() determine when
> > diacritical marks are not distinct characters? No, processor should play
> > stupid.
> > [XPath-substring-diacriticals] Should substring() determine when
> > diacritical marks are not distinct characters? No, processor should play
> > stupid.
> >
> > GROUP 3. Mike Kay items that I think are not vague
> > (p. 84) Some behaviors of round() are not specified. If so please be more
> > exact.
> > I sent a query to Mike Kay.
> > (P. 143) What is "imported into" when xsl:apply-imports is invoked in a
> > template in a stylesheet somewhere down the import tree? I don't know of
> > any ambiguous situations.
> > (P. 149) Multiple evaluations of with-param involving a function with a
> > side effect? Same response as choose-unselected-when-error above.
> 
> --
> Eduardo Gutentag               |         e-mail: eduardo@eng.Sun.COM
> XML Technology Center          |         Phone:  (650) 786-5498
> Sun Microsystems Inc.          |         fax:    (650) 786-5727

-- 
Eduardo Gutentag               |         e-mail: eduardo@eng.Sun.COM
XML Technology Center          |         Phone:  (650) 786-5498
Sun Microsystems Inc.          |         fax:    (650) 786-5727