Subject: [xsl] Re: _why_ do people use xsl:element and xsl:attribute so much From: Deborah Aleyne Lapeyre <dalapeyre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 17:08:02 -0400 |
I would want beginners to have a good foundation for understanding the XSLT processing model (tree access and construction) and the relationship between XSLT and XML Namespaces.
It seems to me that teaching people about literal result elements as "text that is copied through" rather than as "shorthand for instructions to create nodes -- i.e., xsl:element, xsl:attribute, xsl:text, etc."
Absolutely agreed; you MUST teach beginners about nodes. No, you must NOT let them think literal results are just copying text. But that information concerns the conceptual model and how XSLT processing works, and that must come first.
What I don't see is the necessity of explaining literal result elements as a "shorthand" for anything. They are this, they do that, and nodes are written to the result tree, with this for a namespace. Beginners do not need complete stories, they need correct conceptual models.
The fact that an <xsl:element> *also* makes an element node. That's a separate idea and can easily be taught later in the cycle IMHO.
Controversially: I also think that the idea for "pull" (or fill-in-the-blank) stylesheets does not belong in the first day of a multi-day beginner class.
-- ====================================================================== Deborah Aleyne Lapeyre mailto:dalapeyre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com 17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9633 Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631 Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML ======================================================================
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