RE: putting XSL and DSSSL in perspective (was Re: Opinions???)

["Didier PH Martin" <martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Adam,

[opinion about XSL and DSSSL]
Thank for stating it is your opinion and I should say that I agree with
several points.

---------------
Adam said:

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.

Didier says:
I though a bit on that and the only validation on a transformed document
with XSLT is that the end document is a XML document. Because the XSLT
document is itself a XML document (only when the HTML switch is not on like
for instance in the case of XT which can either be a HTML (i.e. SGML)
document or a XML document). Thus, you only be assured that if the XSLT
document is not a well formed XML document it won't parse. But you have no
assurance that the resultant document conform to a particular DTD.
--------------

About the last point and the longevity of DSSSL it mainly depend if all SGML
documents are converted into XML. If in 2003 all there is no more SGML
documents or that only the SGML subset (i.e. XML) survived then you may be
right. But as long as you'll have SGML document, XSLT won't help. XSLT is
not for SGML but for XML. So, the future of DSSSL is also linked to the
future of SGML (not the subset the full set).


regards
Didier PH Martin
mailto:martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.netfolder.com


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