Continuing on the them of recreating the limitations of the physical world.
<xsl:apply-templates select="someNode"/>
where someNode does not exist in the document has no effect.
<xsl:apply-templates select="doc('somedoc'/someNode)
where somedoc doesn't exist .....error - failed to load document.
But really it's just another non-existent node.
On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 2:28 PM, David Lee <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Michael Kay
>
> I would say it is actually a rather unfortunate feature of the XML model that
> the partitioning of data into documents (and collections) is quite so visible
> at the query level, since this partitioning is often a "physical design"
> choice rather than something that flows naturally from the conceptual data
> model. It would be nice to have a model that hid this distinction, e.g. by
> making the entire database (or the entire web) appear to the query as a
> single document. But that's not the way life is.
> ----------
> [DAL:]
> I would like to add, not only total refreshing agreement to this sentiment
> but take it one step sideways.
> This isn't a new thought but its one us compute people often forget.
> Folders and Files. The whole concept of "The Filesystem" ... having to put
> things into Files, and Folders of Files and Volumes etc. is archaic ...
> I believe historically it was done both to try to model "the real world" of
> "The Office" into terms people could understand (literally files of paper
> bound in little file jackets put into folders, put into filing cabinets).
> AND as convenience to early disk based computing ... a simple way to
> organize data.
> This metaphor Documents and Collections (or Directories or Cabinets) has
> persevered for decades and now is so ingrained its the only way most people
> think data *must* be represented or stored or packaged. Onceaponatime we
> thought computers would free us from the Paper World ... but it has not - why
> ? because we used them to model paper !!!
>
> That and paper is a particularly nice way to view text ...
>
> -David
>
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