Re: XML + (XSL | CSS) ?

Subject: Re: XML + (XSL | CSS) ?
From: "Lisa Pease" <lisap@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 09:18:39 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Glazman <Daniel.Glazman@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Daniel.Glazman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <Daniel.Glazman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, May 14, 1998 4:37 AM
Subject: XML + (XSL | CSS) ?


>Hello there,
>
[...]
>I have at this point to modify a bit my first paragraph : I think that
>CSS linking to XML is a danger for XSL because the complexity of XSL
>can be a danger for itself.
>
>I'd be enchanted to read your answers to these opinions.
>[ hope this is in the scope of this list ]
>

Daniel - I share your frustration learning XSL because of the paucity of
materials yet available. I'm also extensively versed in CSS and so you would
think my loyalties would be there. But they are not.

XSL allows me to do all kinds of things I could never do in CSS. Let's take
a very simple example. Imagine I have a book catalog with 1000s of books in
it. Each has this form in XML:

<BOOK>
<TITLE>...</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>...</AUTHOR>
<CATEGORY>...</CATEGORY>
<ISBN>...</ISBN>... and so forth.

Imagine now that I want to print it out in this form:

Title:  [title]
Author: [author]
ISBN: [isbn]

etc.

Using XSL, I can put the text directly into the style sheet once, and have
it repeat 1000 times for each book listing. In addition, I can select out
only those portions which I am using for that list.

Now imagine being able to add script to a style within the style definition
itself. You can do that in XSL. You can't in CSS.

I encourage you to explore the tutorial at the ArborText site
(www.arbortext.com) in XSL. I think once you see that it is easier to use
than it at first appears, you will see that it goes far beyond any current
capabilities of CSS. CSS, however, should not be laughed at or disparaged,
anymore than HTML is. There are places where simple HTML/CSS are appropriate
(temporary pages, pages that change often for which no future retrieval is
ever foreseen, etc.) So it's not like XSL will be a one-size-fits-all
solution. But for large projects, and true XML-based applications, it seems
XSL is far better suited to allowing not only the formatting but
manipulation of the data than CSS is, at least in its current exercise.

Also - much of what you learned about CSS applies in XSL. You can still use
familiar style properties like font-size, border, background-color and so
forth! ;-)




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