Saxon extensions to the W3C XSLT/XQuery specifications

Changes to EXPath functions

The implementations of the EXPath binary and file module functions have been updated to conform to the new 4.0 specifications. Changes apply whether or not 4.0 is enabled.

• The handling of byte order marks in bin:encode-string and bin:decode-string has been clarified in the specification, and this has resulted in changes to the Saxon implementation. The changed behaviour applies whether or not 4.0 is enabled. (PR 1765)

• The non-standard function bin:version is dropped.

• The new EXPath function bin:infer-encoding is implemented.

• The new EXPath functions file:is-absolute, file:list-roots and file:descendants are not yet implemented.

• The new fallback option for the file:read-text and file:read-text-lines functions is not yet implemented.

Dropped experimental features

Some proposed enhancements that didn't survive into the current 4.0 draft specifications have been dropped:

• The ternary conditional expression test ?? A !! B.

• Record types using the keyword "tuple" rather than "record".

• Extensible record types.

• The syntax for defining recursive record types has changed: the use of ".." as a reference to the containing type has been dropped. (In the current 4.0 specification recursive record types can be created by allowing the definition of a named record type to include a reference to itself; but note that named record types are not yet implemented in Saxon.)

• Item types of the form "atomic(X)".

• The syntax type(T) is dropped. A type alias T is now referenced simply as T, not type(T). In XSLT patterns, a match for items of type T is written match="~T" rather than match="type(T)".

• Local union types have been generalized to choice types; the syntax union(xs:int, xs:long) is dropped, replaced by (xs:int | xs:long), and unions of other types are allowed (for example (map(*) | array(*)).

• Lambda expressions of the form ($a, $b) -> {$a + $b}.

• The "thin arrow" notation for inline functions (->{.+1} or ->($x){$x+1}). These are now written fn{.+1} or fn($x){$x+1} respectively.

• Saxon's experimental operators andAlso and orElse are dropped. The 4.0 specification defines and and or to have short-cut semantics, so these operators are unnecessary.

• fn:all is renamed fn:every.

• fn:contains-sequence, fn:ends-with-sequence and fn:starts-with-sequence are renamed fn:contains-subsequence, fn:ends-with-subsequence and fn:starts-with-subsequence respectively.

• fn:intersperse is renamed fn:insert-separator.

• The functions fn:items-after, fn:items-before, fn:items-ending-where, fn:items-starting-where are dropped. (The alternative original Saxon namespace functions remain available: saxon:items-after, saxon:items-before, saxon:items-from, saxon:items-until.)

• The function fn:iterate-while is replaced by fn:while-do and fn:do-until.

• The functions fn:parcel and fn:unparcel are dropped. In Saxon 12, fn:parcel($x) simply did {'value': $x}, and fn:unparcel($p) simply did $p?value.

• The function fn:parts is dropped.

• The fn:pin and fn:label functions are dropped (replaced by JNodes). For the time being, though, the saxon:deep-update extension instruction continues to use pinned and labelled items; this is likely to change in due course.

• The function fn:xdm-to-json is dropped.

• The function array:exists is dropped.

• The function array:of is renamed array:of-members.

• The function array:replace is dropped.

• The function map:index is dropped.

• The second argument for map:keys is dropped.

• The proposed map:keys-where function is dropped.

• The functions map:pair, map:pairs and map:of-pairs are dropped.

Dropped or changed extension functions

Some Saxon extension functions that were essentially prototypes of near-identical XPath 4.0 functions are dropped:

• saxon:analyze-uri is dropped, superseded by fn:parse-uri from the 4.0 specification.

• saxon:array-member is dropped. A call on saxon:array-member(x) can be replaced with the expression {'value': x}.

• saxon:highest and saxon:lowest are dropped, superseded by fn:highest and fn:lowest from the 4.0 specification.

• saxon:index is superseded by map:build.

• saxon:index-where is superseded by fn:index-where.

• saxon:is-NaN is dropped, superseded by fn:is-NaN.

• saxon:parse-html is superseded by fn:parse-html, but note that the specification for fn:parse-html has changed.

• saxon:pedigree and saxon:with-pedigree are dropped. Applications using these functions should be rewritten to use JNodes, which build on the same idea but provide much more flexibility.

The undocumented functions saxon:create-map and saxon:map-as-sequence-of-maps are dropped.

The extension functions saxon:line-number and saxon:column-number now return an empty sequence if the argument value is an empty sequence.

New extension functions

The new functions saxon:compose and saxon:generate-sequence are implemented.

Dropped or changed XSLT extensions

A new vendor option has been added to the fn:transform function. Setting the option saxon:write-result-documents to true() changes the way the output of xsl:result-document instructions is handled. Instead of being returned in the result map returned by fn:transform, they are handled by the result document handler registered with the primary transformation, or the default result document handler otherwise: this has the effect of writing the secondary results directly to filestore.

The saxon:array and saxon:array-member instructions are dropped in favour of their XSLT 4.0 counterparts, xsl:array and xsl:array-member. Note that the XSLT 4.0 specification for xsl:array has changed to drop the composite attribute, and add the for-each attribute.

The saxon:item-type instruction is dropped, superseded by xsl:item-type from the XSLT 4.0 specification.

The saxon:as extension attribute is deprecated; the standard as attribute can now be used in its place.

The xsl:map/@saxon:on-duplicates extension attribute is no longer supported, it is replaced by the regular XSLT 4.0 attribute xsl:map/@duplicates. Similarly the saxon:on-duplicates option of the map:merge function is replaced by the regular 4.0 option duplicates.

The xsl:accumulator-rule/@saxon:capture extension attribute is deprecated; it is replaced by the regular XSLT 4.0 attribute xsl:accumulator-rule/@capture.

The extension instruction saxon:tabulate-maps is dropped, as it depends on features like pins and labels that were proposed for XPath 4.0 but subsequently replaced by JNodes. Practical use cases for saxon:tabulate-maps can readily be rewritten to use JNode-based path expressions: the example previously in the documentation:

might become: