On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 05:58:53PM +0100, Michael Kay scripsit:
> > <xsl:template
> > match="section[user:isNormalSection(.)]">...</xsl:template>
> > 
> > and so on seems heavy and expensive compared to effectively a macro
> > language for predicates
> 
> I can't see why. I think you'll have trouble coming up with a macro
> syntax that's as readable and concise; and there's no reason to assume
> that function calls are expensive (a decent processor should be able
> to expand the function call inline if it's simple enough to make that
> worth doing).

That's good to know.

I certainly don't especially *want* new syntax, I want to avoid having
to use that kind of horrible, horrible predicate again.

> But of course XML has a macro notation as well, called entity
> references, and I've seen that used to good effect in XSLT.

True.  Never occurred to me to try entities in a predicate, but
(presuming a good way to define them all) that would work, too.

Thanks!
Graydon