[Gestalt-users] Should file: URIs create new directories?

[Colin P. A. <co...@co...>]

Currently, if you specify a file: URI in the href attribute of
xsl:result-document, Gestalt will not attempt to create any
directories for you. This is consistent with the behaviour I would
expect if you specify an http URI (I would not expect a server to
create new directories for you). It is also consistent with i/o
redirection (if you DON'T use xsl:result-document, and attempt to
redirect the output to a file in a non-existing directory, bash
refuses to do it.

Liam Quinn points out that this is not what Saxon does (nor xsltproc +
exslt - both behaviours are consistent with the
specifications). Furthermore, with xsl:result-document, the actual
href attribute, and therefore the presence or absence of necessary
directories, can be determined (and he does so) by data in the source
documents. And XSLT does not have a mkdir command.

I pointed out that it would be possible to tackle this by doing two
transformations - the first of which creates the necessary mkdir
commands.

But this would not be efficient (two passes over the source document),
and further more, it would not be portable accross operating systems.

An alternative would be for an extension function that takes a file:
URI and attempts to create all necessary directories.

Opinions are welcome.
-- 
Colin Adams
Preston Lancashire