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Re: _why_ do people use xsl:element and xsl:attribute somuch


I think we agree on principles completely.

>
>I would want beginners to have a good foundation for understanding
>the XSLT processing model (tree access and construction) and the
>relationship between XSLT and XML Namespaces.

Agreed completely and this is where we start also.


>It seems to me that
>teaching people about literal result elements as "text that is
>copied through" rather than as "shorthand for instructions to create nodes --
>i.e., xsl:element, xsl:attribute, xsl:text, etc."


Absolutely agreed; you MUST teach beginners about nodes.
No, you must NOT let them think literal results are just copying text.
But that information concerns the conceptual model and how XSLT
processing works, and that must come first.

What I don't see is the necessity of explaining literal result elements
as a "shorthand" for anything. They are this, they do that, and nodes
are written to the result tree, with this for a namespace. Beginners
do not need complete stories, they need correct conceptual models.

The fact that an <xsl:element> *also* makes an element node.
That's a separate idea and can easily be taught later in the cycle IMHO.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Controversially: I also think that the idea for "pull"
(or fill-in-the-blank) stylesheets does not belong in the
first day of a multi-day beginner class.

--Debbie

-- 
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Deborah Aleyne Lapeyre               mailto:dalapeyre@mulberrytech.com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9633
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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