xmlhack: XSLT 1.1 Cancelled, Working Group moving directly to 2.0

Attendees to the first XSLT-UK conference last weekend were surprised to discover that the XSL Working Group have decided to cancel plans to develop XSLT 1.1. The 1.1 functionality will be added to the 2.0 specification instead.

Sharon Adler, chair of the XSL Working Group, made the announcement during the first day of the conference. Adler noted that the Working Group had made the decision earlier this year, but time pressures had delayed a formal announcement. The Working Group are now setting their sights on XSLT 2.0.

The decision to cancel XSLT 1.1 was apparently taken when the Working Group realised that they were going to be unable to deliver the specification as rapidly as first hoped. The expectation is that the XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 specifications will be delivered next year, slightly later than the target date in the current charter.

Adler also explained that the Working Group are working closely with the Schemas, Query and XForms groups. The discussions include a possible subset of XPath suitable for use in XQuery and XForms. The Working Group are also seeking use cases for the addition of type-based matching in XPath 2.0, and would welcome submissions from the community.

XSLT 1.1 was aimed at standardising many common extensions to XSLT currently available in XSLT processors. This additional delay raises the importance of the EXSLT effort.