Here's what happens: * Unless you use RELAX NG grammars forbidding to do so, it is always legal to delete a text node, whether empty or not.
* Therefore, the text node is always succesfully deleted by <command name="delete" parameter="[implicitNode]"/> * Just after the text node has been deleted, *if* *the* *parent* *element* *becomes* *totally* *empty*, an empty text node is automatically created by XXE. That is, you think the text node has not been deleted but it has been deleted and a new empty text node has been automatically inserted. Note that all this is driven by the grammar constraining the document. Rationale for this behavior: ** A totally empty element is invisible in the styled view (or is represented by a hard-to-understand large ink blob). ** An empty text node is a handy placeholder for typed text. Mark Fletcher wrote: > I'd like my users to be able to use Del to delete empty text nodes and > empty elements without having to explicitly select them. I've got a > command that does what I want if the empty text node is not required. > But it doesn't seem to be able to detect if the text node cannot legally > be deleted. Any suggestions? > > Here's my code: > > > <command name="smartDelete"> > > <macro> > > <sequence> > > <choice> > > <sequence> > > <!-- delete selection, if there is one --> > > <pass><command name="delete"/></pass> > > <command name="delete"/> > > </sequence> > > <sequence> > > <!-- check for empty text node --> > > <test expression="normalize-space(.)=''" context="$implicitNode"/> > > <choice> > > <sequence> > > <!-- delete the empty text node, if possible --> > > <pass><command name="delete" parameter="[implicitNode]"/></pass> > > <command name="delete" parameter="[implicitNode]"/> > > </sequence> > > <sequence> > > <!-- if not possible to remove text node, select text node and ask user > if they'd like to convert it to another element or delete the parent > element altogether. > > ** the macro never gets to this point, because the previous sequence > always passes, even when the text node has not been deleted ** > > --> > > <!-- haven't written this code yet .... --> > > </sequence> > > </choice> > > </sequence> > > <sequence> > > <!-- not an empty text node, do normal deleteChar --> > > <pass><command name="deleteChar"/></pass> > > <command name="deleteChar"/> > > </sequence> > > </choice> > > </sequence> > > </macro> > > </command>
