RE: Abstract Interpretation of XSLT stylesheets

[Matt Sergeant <matt at sergeant dot org>]

On Thu, 6 Jul 2000, Kay Michael wrote:

> > XSLT is a declarative language, not a functional language. Think SQL.
> 
> I think that's open to debate. XPath is certainly declarative, and the
> pattern-matching template rules of XSLT could also be described as
> declarative, but the call-template mechanism and the way variables and
> parameters work has a strong "functional" feel to it, even though the
> inability to manipulate functions as values means that it's not a
> fully-fledged functional programming language.
> 
> Incidentally, while the SELECT statement in SQL is declarative, procedures
> in SQL are rather heavily procedural.

Again, think about how extension functions are equivalent to stored
procedures, and maybe even named templates equivalent to views (though
that's stretching the analogy a bit).

-- 
<Matt/>

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