Re: syntax feedback

[Paul Prescod <paul@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Andy Dent wrote:
> Please do NOT turn this into a 'rigid programmer-think' vs 'freewheeling
> markup' issue. I am certain that if you put XSL syntax in front of your
> average HTML programmer it would equally freak them out.

I'm not sure what you mean by "HTML programmer." But if you mean someone
who creates HTML web pages for a living then you are certainly correct
that XSL will freak them out. So would anything else that depends on
abstractions like "input tree", "result tree" and "transformation."
Unfortunately, 15 years of experience with markup languages tells us that 

 a) nothing less will solve the problem

and 

 b) there are tons of alternatives that are less complex such as CSS,
Panorama stylesheets and so forth.

> I think a LOT of people will take one look at XSL and reject it out of hand
> as being unreadable. I don't think the XML community can afford the
> consequences.

That has not been my experience. I have taught the new XSL both to
non-programmers and to MVS assembly programmers and had good success with
both of them. 

Yes there are tricky parts. It's easy to point to them and say that there
is a problem with XSL. It would be more productive to demonstrate that
there is a clearer way to do it by actually proposing something else.

> The whole point of XML attractiveness is the freewheeling markup.

That's a very odd interpretation. HTML allows freewheeling markup. XML
forces you to jump through additional hoops to get your data onto the Web.
XML also imposes more rules and allows you to make up your own rules.
Implementations are also supposed to impose them more strictly.
Freewheeling it is not.

> I'm going to think about this very hard over the next couple of weeks. I
> think we'll use a combination of CSS syntax for specifying formatting and
> something simpler for pattern matching and layout.


CSS does formatting, pattern matching and layout. Why not use it as it is?

 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
 http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"Sports utility vehicles are gated communities on wheels" - Anon



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