December 2005
Intermediate to advanced
774 pages
19h 30m
English
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Chapter 16. Generic and Functional Programming
The brilliant moves we occasionally make would not have been possible without the prior dumb ones.
Stanley Goldstein
Introduction
This chapter renders all previous chapters moot. Okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration. The fact is that the examples in previous chapters solve the particular problems they address. They are also useful for didactic purposes. If an example does not solve a problem you face, it might point the way to a solution. The desired solution could be a small modification of the code or a reapplication of the same techniques.
This chapter sets its goals a little higher. It presents examples that solve a very broad range of problems without requiring customization of the example’s core code. Those of you who are familiar with C++, and specifically the Standard Template Library (STL), already know the power you can obtain by creating generic code (generic algorithms) and reusing them in various contexts. Others who use functional programming languages (e.g., Lisp, ML, or Haskell) also know of the great power obtained through the creation of higher-order functions: general-purpose functions that are specialized by accepting special purpose functions as arguments. This chapter shows that XSLT, although not specifically designed as a generic or functional language, has inherent capabilities to enable similar usage.
Warning
The techniques used in this chapter stretch the abilities of XSLT quite a bit. Not everyone will ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.