Re: [xsl] Clearing up XSL-speak

Subject: Re: [xsl] Clearing up XSL-speak
From: JCS <subscriber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 18:10:56 +1300
More fun:

Okay, my mind is getting "into XSL".

SELECT VS. FIND

Although David states a difference between using "select" and "find",
Michael K. says no, select is more usual.

I submit it's better to use select as it's what the syntax is but one could
describe it as a find, or a query, that uses the syntax "select".

I think this is important for beginners like me to understand as it is
related to declarative languages such as XSL...

DECLARATIVE? WHAT THE *bleep* IS THAT?

Now that I have a better understanding of what a declarative language is, I
see it easy to describe within the scope of template matching: I match a
template and I declare how the output should look without having to worry
about how it's done. I now see templates as "output blocks" that receive
input via "select". If you recall this is what I meant by having trouble
visualizing the I/O of XSL.

XPATH, MORE ABOUT WHERE THAN WHAT?

I've been working on some data schemas with a group I started. Something I
notice a lot is the superfluous markup done in XML. The more I use templates
and XSL in general, it seems that the element name isn't as important as
where it is located in the data tree. I think this is important for
beginners like myself to understand as in procedural programming, even with
variables, classes, and abstract layers, one picks data by name, not
location. Perhaps my biggest initial confusion to begin with template
matching is locating what I want properly. The tutorials I have read over
and over don't seem to put enough emphasis on the concept of "data tree" as
where, not "what".

Thanks for all the responses,

/johnny :)

-- 
Hating somebody is like burning down a house to get rid of a rat.
-- unknown 


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