XML and IE5 beta PR2

Simon North (north@Synopsys.COM)
Thu, 5 Nov 1998 14:52:27 +0001


For anyone who hasn't noticed, the preview 2 release of IE5 was put
on the public servers yesterday (it had been placed there last Friday
but was pulled shortly afterwards). Today, Microsoft appear to have
put updated documentation on the SBN web pages.

The new release doesn't seem to support the style part of XSL, only
the transformation part (but it does seem to be nearly 100%
compliant, or at least as far as I've had time to check). It will,
for example, choke on process-children (unless someone else has
got it to work).

I have managed to get it to work with simple files such as
these:

The XML file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml:stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="ietest.xsl"?>

<books>
<book>
<title>Pierre: The Ambiguities</title>
<author>Herman Melville</author>
<price>9.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title>Heart of Darkness</title>
<author>Joseph Conrad</author>
<price>12.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title>Arrowsmith</title>
<author>Sinclair Lewis</author>
<price>8.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title>Oedipus Rex</title>
<author>Sophocles</author>
<price>8.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title>The Secret Sharer and Other Stories</title>
<author>Joseph Conrad</author>
<price>13.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title>The Republic</title>
<author>Plato</author>
<price>12.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title>The Republic</title>
<author>Plato</author>
<price>15.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title>Pragmatism</title>
<author>William James</author>
<price>15.99</price>
</book>
</books>

and the XSL file:

<DIV xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl">
<TABLE style="table-layout:fixed" BORDER="2" CELLSPACING="2">
<col width="300"/>
<col width="300"/>
<col width="100"/>
<THEAD>
<TH>TITLE</TH><TH>AUTHOR</TH><TH>PRICE</TH></THEAD>
<xsl:for-each select="books/book">
<TR>
<TD><SPAN><xsl:value-of select="title"/></SPAN></TD>
<TD><SPAN><xsl:value-of select="author"/></SPAN></TD>
<TD><SPAN><xsl:value-of select="price"/></SPAN></TD>
</TR>
</xsl:for-each>
</TABLE>
</DIV>

(I quickly hacked these files from the sources available on the SBN
site).

Without a style sheet, it shows a 'raw' XML tree that you can expand
and contract. The DSO and data island mechanisms appear to be intact
(bar a few minor changes).

It also appears to correctly parse and validate XML code against a
DTD; the DTD display is suppressed.

I'm now going to tackle XLink and XPointer, although I suspect I know
what the results will be.

Simon.