As you probably already have read by now is that the XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 are now W3C Recommendations.
XSLT 2.0 is a really nice step forward in the XML transformation technology, a technique that we base our software on to enable us to produce content for different devices, platforms and targets.
XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0, in specific, could help us making these transformations much easier without having to use XSLT Extension Objects for some tasks.
The Microsoft XML Team writes about their contributions to XSLT and XPath 2.0 and how they will possibly use these technologies in upcoming versions of the Microsoft.NET framework and/or standalone packages. There will not be any support in Orcas, but I think we can expect some kind of CTP later this year.
A few months back, when XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 just became Proposed Recommendations, I had a talk over e-mail with one of the XML team members in which I begged :-) for an implementation… Now they ask us to provide them with information on how these techniques can help us and make our life easier. Here are my favorites, what are yours?
Regular expressions
Regular expressions are great when comparing or searching text or patterns. XSLT 2.0 introduces the xsl:analyze-string to allow you to use regular expressions.
Grouping
Grouping items in XSLT 1.0 was a hazzle sometimed, especially if you XML was complex. XSLT 2.0 introduces the Grouping concept and introduces xsl:for-each-group to make this easier.
Formatting
More formatting functions such as; XHTML as output, date and time formatting and collations for sorting.
And much more…
So Microsoft XML Team; when can we expect some early alpha or beta build? If you want some input or testing done you know where to go…