If in doubt, read the spec:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#message

"The xsl:message instruction causes the creation of a new document, which is
typically serialized and output to an implementation-defined destination."

The output of xsl:message is XML, which is then serialized. This is why
special characters such as < and & are escaped.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Florent Georges [mailto:darkman_spam@xxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 20 May 2006 21:25
> To: XSL Mulberry list
> Subject:  Escaping of xsl:text in xsl:message
>
>   Hi
>
>   With Saxon 8.7.1j, the following code:
>
>     <xsl:message>
>       <xsl:text> -> </xsl:text>
>     </xsl:message>
>
> results to the following text being outputed to the standard output:
>
>     - & g t ;
>
> (with the entity ref letters space-separated to be sure to
> pass the mail systems).
>
>   Is it expected?  If it is, why?  Is it
> implementation-dependant?  If it is, do you expect that such
> escaping occurs within xsl:message?
>
>   Regards,
>
> --drkm
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