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RE: how to reassign a variable's value?
- From: Wendell Piez <wapiez at mulberrytech dot com>
- To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
- Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 15:13:40 -0400
- Subject: RE: [xsl] how to reassign a variable's value?
- Reply-to: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
Maybe it's the designers of the original languages that said "LET X = X +
1" (which makes no sense mathematically, as even I can see, at least using
the '+' operator I know) that mistakenly appropriated the term "variable"
for a named something that could be reassigned a new value. Then needing a
term for that class of named somethings whose value could (or would) not be
changed, they picked "constant".
There's a silver lining to the recurring dark cloud of confusion over
what's an XSLT "variable". It's good for all computer programmers (and
people too!) to learn how slippery are words, even technical terms. Learn
that and you have at least a prayer of coming to understand how things
actually work.
At 03:38 AM 8/13/2002, you wrote:
Charles Knell [mailto:cknell@onebox.com] wrote:
> It is constant within a context and variable between contexts.
> "Varinstant", perhaps?
Or "Constable"? That'd cause some confusion! :-)
Dan.
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