Re: [xsl] Processing inner elements

Subject: Re: [xsl] Processing inner elements
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:35:24 -0500
At 06:25 AM 12/30/2006, Abel wrote:
There's much more to it, of course, and XSLT has quite a steep learning curve.

In my experience (and mind you, I teach this stuff), the XSLT learning curve may be a bit steep for some, at the beginning, but it's not high. You learn how templates work (as you suggest) and the hard part is over. From then on it's a smooth ascent -- at least until you start trying to solve problems the language wasn't designed for.


But for whatever reason, many people teaching themselves XSLT don't bother to learn how templates work. Maybe they assume that there's nothing to it (they would be wrong). Then they find the language intractable and difficult. But blaming XSLT for that is like blaming power-saw manufacturers for making their blades disc-shaped. (They're so hard to saw with!)

At least the OP had the sense to intuit that what he was missing was very basic. He called it "obvious", though it's not (unless you've seen similar things before). Once you'd taken it in, however, much else becomes so.

Cheers,
Wendell



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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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