Re: If xsl replaces dsssl, then may I still use Jade? - for real

["didier ph martin" <martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Eric,

>    My initial take on XSL is that it accomplishes the purposes of dsssl-o
>    in a form that many will find easier to learn. It also promises a
>    clean division between the declarative and programmatic parts of a
>    style sheet that should make it much easier to construct user-friendly
>    style editors. As the de facto editor of the dsssl-o spec, I can
>    testify that it is an exercise in pure pragmatism. If XSL can deliver
>    on its promise to provide an open standard that implements dsssl-o
>    functionality and fosters wide commercial deployment, then I for one
>    will be happy to retire the specification.
>

Didier says:
a) XSL evolved a lot since that time and now DSSSL is following the same
evolution mechanism. I am not sure that XSL accompished a lot on the user
friendlyness But some template based construct make it easier to transform
"by example" into other "well formed" domain languages based on XML. Notice
here that I say XML not SGML (mainly because of the well formed constraint).
DSSSL is also evolving into DSSSL-2. DSSSL-O is a gost of the past. Some
comments ideas comming from the discussion about DSSSL-o are already
implemented into OpenJade. We ar now thinking on how to improve DSSSL
(DSSSL-2).

> We are interested in converting an XML generated by Delphi 5 (basically a
> recordset) into RTF reports.  There is an element of transformationw hich
we
> were planning to do with perl to yield a transformed XML.  Now we are
looking
> for an open source (transformed) XML -> RTF.  But we would like to write
the
> styling information in XSL because of our feelings re DSSSL vs XSL as
> confirmed by the (old) message from Jon Bosak above.  Will Jade do the
> trick?  Or should we look elsewhere if we wish to use XML/XSL => RTF.
>

Didier says:
Two years after this message was written, there is still no XML->RTF
transformation with xsl engines. The only XSL engine using the formating
objects concept is the James Tauber XSL engine that does XML -> PDF
transform. So....

This said, OpenJade can actually do SGML _XML_ transformation (XSL can only
do XML tranformation into XML or formattning objects), so OpenJade can do
SGML _and_ XML transformation into:
a) RTF
b) Tex
c) MIF
d) HTML+CSS
e) SGML
f) XML

What is missing to the list is transformation into PDF, we are working on
this.


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




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