RE: Complex XSL Application (I think)

Subject: RE: Complex XSL Application (I think)
From: Mark Birbeck <Mark.Birbeck@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 13:13:11 -0000
Not sure who this was aimed at, but ...

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Guy_Murphy@xxxxxxxxxx [SMTP:Guy_Murphy@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent:	Thursday, February 25, 1999 11:31 AM
> To:	xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:	RE: Complex XSL Application (I think)
> 
> I think you might be both missing each other by looking too closely at
> the
> words and nto the meaning.
> 
> Actually it is not the task of XSL to produce HTML from XML. The
> original
> chap was correct is stating both that XSL is a language and not an
> application, and two that it doesn't produce HTML.
> 
> The result of an XSL process is XML, ideally in the case of styling,
> formatting objects.
> 
> However, in the development stage of XSL that we currently find
> ourselves
> with incomplete implimentations of XSL (and indeed XSL being
> incomplete
> itself), HTML-like XML is often used as the result of XSL so that it
> might
> be rendered in current browsers.
> 
	Just because XSL will produce more elaborate things later, does
not at all mean that HTML is not a worthy goal! I'll list the ways that
we are using XSL at the moment for an online magazine:

	1. QuarkXPress documents are converted to XML documents with all
style replaced by tags.
	2. These XML documents are processed with XSL to produce further
XML documents, but in a format that exactly matches our object database
structure. Additional attributes not relevant to the Quark documents are
added, like linked lists, and so on.
	3. These XML documents are imported into our database.
	4. When an article is requested the database exports the data as
XML, which is then combined via XSL to produce an HTML page on the
server.
	5. The article is delivered to the user regardless of browser
type. Each article contains a link that will retrieve the same article
from the server with a different stylesheet, such as ones for printing,
ones for emailing, and so on.
	6. As a 'proof of concept' we've generated other HTML pages for
PalmPCs (geared towards black and white), and WebTV - all with simple to
maintain stylesheets in XSL.

	Now, no offence Guy, but I think we're pretty much exploring the
full range of uses of XSL there (and a few others I haven't mentioned).
In particular number 2 is important, because all we have to do is
receive valid XML documents from our clients and we're away - they don't
need to concern themselves with how we store them, if we change formats,
or whatever.

	But further, HTML is a perfectly acceptable goal for XSL at the
moment.


> If you where to suggest though that the original posters statement was
> potentialy misleading, even maybe obfuscating, then I'd agree with you
> :)
> 
	Thought it was pretty clear. ;-)

	Regards,

	Mark



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