Editing XSLT (section)

==History==
XSLT is influenced by [[functional programming|functional languages]],<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-xslt/ | author=Michael Kay | title=What kind of language is XSLT? | website=[[IBM]] | access-date=July 8, 2016}}</ref> and by text-based pattern matching languages like [[SNOBOL]] and [[AWK]]. Its most direct predecessor is [[DSSSL]], which did for [[SGML]] what XSLT does for XML.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-XSL.html | title=A Proposal for XSL | publisher=W3C | access-date=November 7, 2012}}</ref>
* XSLT 1.0: XSLT was part of the [[World Wide Web Consortium]] (W3C)'s [[Extensible Stylesheet Language|eXtensible Stylesheet Language]] (XSL) development effort of 1998–1999, a project that also produced [[XSL-FO]] and [[XPath]]. Some members of the standards committee that developed XSLT, including [[James Clark (XML expert)|James Clark]], the editor, had previously worked on DSSSL. XSLT 1.0 was published as a [[W3C recommendation]] in November 1999.<ref name="timelinehistory">{{cite web |url=http://www.dblab.ntua.gr/~bikakis/XML%20and%20Semantic%20Web%20W3C%20Standards%20Timeline-History.pdf |title=XML and Semantic Web W3C Standards Timeline |access-date=2012-02-04 |archive-date=2013-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424125723/http://www.dblab.ntua.gr/~bikakis/XML%20and%20Semantic%20Web%20W3C%20Standards%20Timeline-History.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Despite its age, XSLT 1.0<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt |title=XSL Transformations (XSLT) |publisher=W3.org |date=1999-11-16 |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref> is still widely used ({{as of|2018|lc=y}}), since later versions are not supported natively in [[web browser]]s or for environments like [[LAMP (software bundle)|LAMP]].

* XSLT 2.0: after an abortive attempt to create a version 1.1 in 2001,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt11/ |title=XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.1 |publisher=W3.org |date=2001-08-24 |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref> the XSL working group joined forces with the [[XQuery]] working group to create [[XPath 2.0]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20/ |title=XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 (Second Edition) |publisher=W3.org |date=2010-12-14 |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref> with a richer data model and type system based on [[XML Schema (W3C)|XML Schema]]. Building on this is XSLT 2.0,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/ |title=XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0 |publisher=W3.org |date=2007-01-23 |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref> developed under the editorship of [[Michael Howard Kay|Michael Kay]], which reached recommendation status in January 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dblab.ntua.gr/~bikakis/XML%20and%20Semantic%20Web%20W3C%20Standards%20Timeline-History.pdf|title=XML and Semantic Web W3C Standards Timeline|date=2012-02-04|access-date=2012-02-04|archive-date=2013-04-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424125723/http://www.dblab.ntua.gr/~bikakis/XML%20and%20Semantic%20Web%20W3C%20Standards%20Timeline-History.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The most important innovations in XSLT 2.0 include:
** String manipulation using [[regular expressions]]
** Functions and operators for manipulating dates, times, and durations
** Multiple output documents
** Grouping (creating hierarchic structure from flat input sequences)
** A richer type system and stronger type checking

* XSLT 3.0: became a W3C Recommendation on 8 June 2017. The main new features are:<ref name=new-in-3>{{cite web|title=What's New in XSLT 3.0?
|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/#whats-new-in-xslt3|publisher=w3|access-date=6 January 2014}}</ref> 
** [[Streaming XML|Streaming transformations]]: in previous versions the entire input document had to be read into memory before it could be processed,<ref>
{{cite web|last=Kay|first=Michael|title=A Streaming XSLT Processor|url=http://www.balisage.net/Proceedings/vol5/html/Kay01/BalisageVol5-Kay01.html|publisher=Balisage: The Markup Conference 2010 Proceedings|access-date=15 February 2012}}</ref> and output could not be written until processing had finished. XSLT 3.0 allows [[Streaming XML|XML streaming]] which is useful for processing documents too large to fit in memory or when transformations are chained in [[XML Pipelines]].
** Packages, to improve the modularity of large stylesheets.
** Improved handling of dynamic errors with, for example, an xsl:try instruction.
** Support for maps and arrays, enabling XSLT to handle JSON as well as XML.
** Functions can now be arguments to other (higher-order) functions.