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Re: DocBook XSL: <xsl:variable> and <xsl:param>
At 1:56 PM -0500 3/23/00, Norman Walsh wrote:
>/ Dave Makower <davemak@iclick.com> was heard to say:
>| Is there a reason that the boolean $generate.component.toc and
>| $generate.division.toc are declared as <xsl:variable> and not
>| <xsl:param> in the DocBook XSL -> HTML stylesheets?
>
>If there's a semantic difference between xsl:variable and xsl:param
>at the top level, I've forgotten what it is.
I thought that xsl:param was supposed to be for dynamically passed-in
parameters (specific implementation details not specified by XSLT),
while xsl:variable was explicitly for non-parameterized "variables"
(essentially constants).
However, at least using XT, it appears that xsl:variable at the top
level works just like xsl:param. I am unable to find anything in the
W3C XSLT spec or in the Crane Softwrights XSLT documentation to
indicate that an xsl:variable should ever have its assigned value
overridden by one that is dynamically passed in. It seems to me that
XT's behavior with regard to xsl:variable is outside the spec,
perhaps even in violation of it.
It seems to me that if the values in param.xsl are meant to be
dynamically passed-in parameters, then they ought to use xsl:param
rather than xsl:variable.
But, as I've said before, I'm not an expert at this, and I could be
missing something.
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