From: Kienle, Steven C [IT/0200]
[mailto:steven(_dot_)c(_dot_)kienle(_at_)pharmacia(_dot_)com]
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 5:57 AM
Subject: RE: xslt core and intuition was RE: [xsl] Reference
to variable
c annot be resolved.
Actually, I'm not sure an intuitive language is good, or even
possible.
Look at all spoken languages. In the programming world, using C as an
example, there are many things which can be intuitively
understandable with
enough knowledge of the core, but end up causing more bugs than that
intuition is worth: for example
if (i = j)
as an assignment and non-zero value test. That really does
make intuitive
sense if you understand the history of the language.
Maybe this just reinforces your point, but someone experienced with a
procedural language will understand that "=" is an assignment operator and
"==" is an equality operator; however, in XSLT "=" is an equality expression
and <xsl:variable> is the assignment "operator." That wouldn't see terribly
intuitive to me if I were just learning the language. (Although your
programming mistake above, written as <xsl:if test="$i = $j">, would make
perfect sense to me now!)
cheers,
b.
| brian martinez
brian(_dot_)martinez(_at_)trip(_dot_)com |
| senior gui programmer 303.708.7248 |
| trip network, inc. fax 303.790.9350 |
| 6436 s. racine cir. englewood, co 80111 |
| http://www.cheaptickets.com/ http://www.trip.com/ |
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list