Subject: [xsl] XSLT and Golden Hammers ... From: Gunther Schadow <gunther@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 12:08:13 -0500 |
Dimitre's warning about the sequential occurrence of code in XSLT templates not implying sequential execution of side-effects (if any) is still spinning in my mind. I am doing quite a bit of interaction with the real world in my XSLT work and one of those is JDBC access.
Looks like the Golden Hammer syndrome. What's wrong with generating the XML with some Java code or some other language (like Cocoon XSP or SQL Transformer), and apply XSLT to the result?
What's wrong with doing it in XSLT? My motive for not using anything but XSLT and Java is simply a matter of consolidating an unnecessary plethora of tools to depend on. The reason I'm not doing this in Java is that I can script these things very nicely with XSLT using JDBC directly. My point is to keep all information as proper XML node(-sets) at all times and use XSLT instead of tedious API calls to navigate information structures.
XSLT is a very powerful functional language with a very usable way to integrate to Java that makes XSLT into a scripting language for XML and Java. I do not think it's a golden hammer syndrome. In fact, I believe that while the XSLT design team (and the community supporting XSLT on this list) is blessed by some exceptionally smart people who make sure that the language is actually sound and simple (compare that with the JSP blurb or with Perl :-). Because of this, it is no wonder that the result has far more use than the original motivating purpose. While I am very sympathetic with the designers protecting their language from becomming a swiss-army-knife, I hope that there will continue to be openness toward new and exciting uses.
regards, -Gunther
-- Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org
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