Hi David,
Something else I learned was a fantastic little trick that I had
never seen used before: using the number function to dynamically
determine what element to use based on document position (e.g.
foo(number(@bar)) would allow you to select the element in the
position that was contained in foo/@bar. These are the types of
little details that I am hoping to possibly re-discover during this
process.
You mean "foo[number(@bar)]" (which selects the <foo> element children
of the current node whose bar attributes match their position amongst
other <foo> elements within the current node) or, more feasibly,
"foo[number(current()/@bar)]" (which selects the nth <foo> element
child of the current node where n is the value of the bar attribute of
the current node).
Yeah, even as much as I use them I still find myself having to
methodically step through my code everytime to make sure that I
using proper context and such. This is definitely an error that can
easily trip up even the best of developers... definitely something
that you can never spend enough time practicing :)
Right -- that's part of why I tend to advise people to use matching
templates with modes rather than named templates: with a matching
template, you have some hope of knowing what the context node is by
looking at the pattern, with a named template you can't tell without
finding the call to that template, which makes debugging that much
harder.
In fact (I'm going to advertise this in a seperate email that is
short and to the point so that more people become aware of it) I am
going to document this process using a blog format at the domain
"UnderstandingXSLT.com" and encourage people to go out and buy a
copy of your book and follow along with me, discussing through
comments the experience each person may be having, details they have
discovered that may interest others, and questions they might have
that anybody reading might be able to answer. It would be great if
you stopped by to chime in on things now and again as I am sure
there are many people out there, myself included, who would love to
hear what you have to say about certain areas contained withing your
book.
I'll certainly try to pop in.
BTW... is there a preferred vendor or URL that you would like me to
list for people to visit to buy a copy of this title?
No; a link to Amazon is fine.
Cheers,
Jeni
---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/
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