RE: XSL/CSS Tutorials

Subject: RE: XSL/CSS Tutorials
From: "Didier PH Martin" <martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 08:17:30 -0400
Hi Johnny

You said:
	Could someone point me to some resources on the Web where I could learn
the fundamental differences between CSS and XSL.  I understand that,
conceptually, XSL is a transformative language and the CSS is essentially a
technique for formatting.  What I'm really after is the *current* state of
technology in terms of using XSL _now_.  If XSL is not yet
ready-for-prime-time, I'd like to know that as well.
	I guess what I'm really asking is: Are there resources on the web that use
XSL to display XML today?  If not, what hacks or tricks or CSS use is being
used in the waiting period that XSL takes to blossom?  I apologize for the
poorly worded query, but this stuff has confused me to no end.

Didier says:
I am writing something on this but recently the OpenJade project took me a
lot of energy. Anyway, before the document is published, I'll try to explain
as objectively the state of the art.

a) CSS: Actually supported by at least three browsers: a) Opera, b) Mozilla
c)Internet Explorer. However, actually, only Internet Explorer support CSS
for XML. This last fact is not well known. Because of intensive marketing
effort about XSL from W3C members, it is not well known that CSS could be
used for XML rendition (this is not a critic , and I am not saying it is
bad. I am just stating the facts and takes consideration of XML/CSS vs
XML/XSL publications).  The next Mozilla release will also include XML
rendition with CSS. I don't know for Opera and Hakon can probably tell us
more on this topic. So, in a near future, the only cross browser rendition
language will be CSS.

b) XSL: Internet Explorer is the only major browser supporting XSL. The XSL
supported is not the most up to date but to Microsoft discharge, XSL specs
are evolving not necessarily at the same pace as the browser. We have to
remember that XSL is still under definition and CSS is already a
recommendation (CSS1 in 1996). A plethora of XSLT engines are available
(mostly implemented in Java) for XML to HTML, XML to PDF transformation.
However, these tools are not included in browsers. These are tools to be
used stand alone or at server side.

Basically in the current state of the art:
CSS is now and for the near future, the rendition language of choice for
client side rendition (at least if you want your XML document to be rendered
in both Mozilla, Opera and Internet Explorer)- Con: a lot of borwsers do not
yet support XML. XSLT is better now and in the near future for server side
transformation - Pro: every browser support HTML.

An important factor to take into notice: It takes time for the actual
browsers to be replaced by new ones. For instance, there is still a majority
of Internet Explorer v 4 in the market. Not everybody upgraded to version 5.
Most of Mozilla browsers do not yet support XML, they support only HTML.
Thus, actually, if a document is published in HTML format, it has a higher
probability to be rendered everywhere than it is the case for a XML document
(only a few can render it). If you choose to publish your document to be
seen by the largest number of people (and therefore interpretable by the
largest number of browsers), it is more clever to publish the document in
HTML format. If the original document is stored in XML format, then any good
XSLT engine used server side (preferably as a servlet) will do the job.

Conclusion:
If you want mass diffusion of your XML documents, it is preferable to use a
XSLT engine located on the HTTP server (as a servlet because most of them
are Java based) and have this engine transform your XML documents into HTML
to be rendered on as much browsers as possible. Client side transformation
is still experimental except if your target audience is using Internet
Explorer V5 and none are using other browsers like Mozilla, Opera and
others. Thus, the choice is not as much dictated by technical virtues as it
is dictated by common sense and document diffusion strategies.

I hope I gave a decent answer to your question.

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


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