As a pattern, match="node()" is short for match="child::node()", which
matches any node that is a child of anything - which means elements,
text nodes, comments, and PIs, but not root nodes, attributes or
namespaces.
What's probably confusing you is that as a node-test, node() matches any
node. So if it's used with a different axis, e.g.
match="attribute::node()" or match="ancestor::node()", it will match
other node types than these.
Actually, the only axis specifiers allowed in patterns are "child,"
"attribute," and "@," so "ancestor::node()" is not a valid pattern.
Doesn't this imply a template can never match a namespace node? If so,
then the select attribute of xsl:apply-templates can select namespace
nodes, but no template will ever match them.
My feeling is this was done intentionally, but I'm not sure. Does anyone
know the history?
Dave
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