Subject: putting XSL and DSSSL in perspective (was Re: Opinions???) From: Adam Di Carlo <adam@xxxxxxxxxxx> Date: 27 May 1999 14:45:34 -0400 |
I'd like to give my take on DSSSL vs XSL. I'm sure this topic is going to come up again and again, but I'd like to address it. My outlook is a Unix free software hacker. I like Java ok, but the fact there are no non-Java free XSL processors is a bit of a problem for me (a) Java tends to be slow, and (b) Sun owns Java too much, and there isn't currently a production ready free JVM. But I don't want to get sidetracked into a java debate. I'm just stating my outlook. My position is very simple: if you want to do DTD -> DTD transformations, I really think XSLT will prevail over DSSSL. Why using jade/DSSSL for DTD -> DTD transformation is not optimal: * the DSSSL transformation language isn't really implemented in any free tools -- Jade uses a proprietary system. * jade SGML transformation is too slow for a really scalable solution (I guess a caching system could really help) and the lack of it being based on a standard means that competing (fast) implemementations are unlikely Why using XSLT for transformations is good: * the XSLT paradigm of match/apply is better suited to DTD -> DTD transformations than jade's, uh, "functional programming" technique The last point is probably debatable, however, I would pretty much categorically state that you can prove (with some work) that, for any given input, your output will be valid to a target DTD using XSLT, and this is not really the case with jade's DSSSL transformation language. On the other hand, I do not think that jade will be surpassed by XSL-FOT for printable output for quite a while, if ever. The idea to have print/web single stylesheets is a good idea, I just don't think it will become a reality before 2003 or later. -- .....Adam Di Carlo....adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<URL:http://www.onShore.com/> DSSSList info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist
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