XSL-List – Open Forum on XSL

Before You Post ... Do Your Homework

• Check that your question isn’t already answered in the XSL-List archive at http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/.
• If you are asking for help with XSL code, determine which version of the language you are using (plus extensions, if any) and confirm that your XSL processor supports that version and/or extension. (If you are unsure of your processor, this can be determined by using the stylesheet at https://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/processor-version.xsl on any input, including the stylesheet itself; see https://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/processor-version.html for more information.) An XSLT 1.0 engine will not process stylesheets written in XSLT 2.0!

In Your Posting ...

Name the XSL processor, processor version, and version of the language you are using. This information is frequently necessary to diagnose a problem exactly, and always helps respondents give good advice.

If you are replying to a post, trim the quoted message to just the parts to which you are replying.

In addition to following simple rules of net etiquette and common sense, you will improve the chances that you will receive prompt and helpful responses by:

• Asking questions specific enough that answers are possible. Describe what you are trying to do, how you approached it, what happened, and why you don’t like the result you got. Don’t simply say “it gave me an error”; paste in the error message (someone else can probably make sense of it).
• Illustrating your question with a demonstration of the problem. Well-composed questions frequently include a small XML sample, an XSLT stylesheet, the results received, and the result that was desired – all in miniature, to make it comprehensible to readers new to your problem. (It is also not uncommon to discover what a problem actually is in the process of reducing it to an illustrative version.)

Use Informative Subject Lines

When posting to XSL-List, do not use uninformative subject lines like “Urgent”, “Question”, or “Newbie HELP!!!”, which don’t say anything about what your problem is. Instead, use a meaningful subject line that will make sense to the people whose help you are trying to get. It may even get a response from people who normally shy away from “beginner” questions.

Informative subject lines make the XSL-List archive more useful since people with the same problem will more easily find the relevant threads.

Do Not Cross-Post

Cross-posting to XSL-List and to another list is generally counter-productive. No list’s archive will contain the complete thread; cross-posts from non-subscribers continuing the thread will bounce; and XSL-List subscribers who are not also on the other list will only see half the thread, as will those on the other list who are not also reading XSL- List. Subscribers to both lists may see two copies of the message, annoying them as well.

Replies Go to the List

The reply address of XSL-List messages (and of digests) is [email protected] so REPLIES GO TO THE LIST BY DEFAULT. If you want to reply to just the author of a post, you should change the “To:” field in your reply.

Use Short Quotes of Previous Messages in Replies

Please do not quote entire messages just to add a few lines at the beginning or end. Instead, quote the parts to which you are directly replying or quote enough to establish the context.

Everybody on the list has already received the message that you are quoting, and anyone searching the archive will find your message and the previous message listed under the same thread.

Subscribers to the List will just ignore most of the quoted messages and move to the next post, but subscribers to XSL-List Digest will mostly have to page past the quoted messages to reach the next material which they are interested in reading.

Postings Must Be in Plain Text Only

Postings to XSL-List must be in plain text only. XSL-List does not allow HTML postings because many users cannot display them appropriately, and because they are unnecessarily large.

Attachments Are Banned

Since Mulberry’s mailing lists have in the past been unwittingly used for spreading viruses in email attachments, all email attachments are banned from XSL-List.

XSL stylesheets are XML files, and XML files are text files, so this does not affect the majority of posts to the list since you can include a file’s text in the body of your message. If you need to refer to a binary file such as a PDF file, you should put the file on a Web site or FTP site and include the file’s URL in your XSL-List post.

If you do include an attachment in your XSL-List post – even a HTML attachment – your message will bounce.

Your Post Will Be Permanently Archived

Because it is a public resource created by and for the entire XSL community, we do not edit XSL-List. Therefore, it is the responsibility of list subscribers not to post anything to the list that they do not want publicly available, possibly for a very long time.

Postings in the list archives will be complete, including: all contents, examples, sample data, code or code fragments, and email header and footer contents. An automated process will obscure the domain portion of email addresses (the part after the @ sign) in the headers and footers of postings, but no guarantee is made that this process will be completely successful. Other than this, all postings will be archived in public as received.

Further, we at Mulberry could not, even if we wanted to, edit all of the archives of XSL-List. Several third-parties have created unofficial archives of XSL-List, often without asking, or even informing, Mulberry. Postings to XSL-List will be included in an unknown and ever-changing variety of web publications. If you don’t want your questions/comments/answers in public view, don’t post them to XSL-List.

Official List Archive

XSL-List messages are archived at http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/.

Third-party Archives of XSL-List

Third parties are welcome to create searchable or reference archives of XSL-List provided they adhere to the following guidelines:

• The material is clearly labelled as being from XSL-List, with an acknowledgement of Mulberry’s role as provider of XSL-List.
• There is a navigable pointer to the official list page at https://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/ either on every posting or associated with the user interface such that it is visible with the postings.
• List postings are unedited.
• Either the entire archive of the list is provided, or there is a clearly stated method for selecting the subset of the list that is provided.

Mulberry does not provide third parties with help to create their archives, does not endorse particular third party archives, and has no control over the ways in which they present the material in their systems.

People or organizations that publish the contents of XSL-List without following the guidelines above are being very antisocial. Please bookmark either the official XSL-List archive or one provided by a service that plays nicely in the community and shun those who do not give credit where credit is due.