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RE: Re: Reference to variable cannot be resolved.

2003-02-14 14:55:14
cknell(_at_)onebox(_dot_)com wrote:

ceci n'est pas une pipe
http://dubhe.free.fr/gpeint/magritte6.html

Of course this is not a pipe.  It's a message (now a copy of a message) with
a link to a webpage with an image of a painting of a pipe.  Nonetheless,
there are doubtless some who followed the link looked at the image and said,
"What's with the pipe?"

Magritte's "Zen koan in oils" is very instructive, when you "get it."  My
question for the designers of XSLT 2.0 is this, "Should XSLT require the
novice users to acheive 'enlightenment' on the subject of variables, or
should it give them hints and cheats so that they don't have to?"  If the
answer is the former, I think that the sooner new users run into the
situations that require enlightenment, the better; make it a part of the
early learning curve.  If the answer is the latter, I believe the hints and
cheats should be sufficient that new users never *have* to become
enlightened unless they are doing something truly advanced.

I think that the current proposal as described here straddles an unstable
fence between two stable states, and hence will generate more heat than
light for new users.

-- Roger
   glover_roger(_at_)yahoo(_dot_)com



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