Re: [xsl] XML/XSLT for web templating

Subject: Re: [xsl] XML/XSLT for web templating
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:03:47 -0400
At 06:03 PM 10/8/2007, Kamal wrote:
I face a huge resistance based on the "fame" of XSLT of being:

1. Too slow ... 2. Too difficult ... 3. Too unknown ("everybody knows JSP...") 4. Too old ...
I would like to know who comes up with this garbage. I am befuddled whenever I hear these objections....

I agree with Mike. These are rational arguments deployed for irrational reasons. That is, the "reason" is hardly ever the real reason. Especially when the reasons offered contradict one another, you can be sure they're just a smoke screen.


Before it was too old, XSLT was too new. In some places it's still too new. It's too difficult -- except in some places they don't like it since "non-programmers" pick it up so readily and get so good with it so quickly. This drives the "programmers" nuts.

Then too, sometimes the real reasons, even if unexpressed, are actually good reasons. I've seen organizations have trouble because some people were too far out front and a cultural split developed. This is a legitimate concern, I think.

People are people, and organizations of people are even more human than the individuals in them. The most effective technologists I've known have been really curious people who haven't been worried about protecting turf or reputation. Instead, they see a new technology and they want to try it. The broad experience they accumulate as a result -- along with the imagination that makes it possible -- makes them tremendously valuable, and healthy organizations learn to rely on their good advice. (Sometimes I wish I'd been such a developer, like some people on this list. But I came to the work from the wrong direction -- which I hope offers its own advantages -- and the opportunity had passed. And still I try to cultivate the mentality.)

But these people at their best, with all their technical smarts, will be the first to tell you that it's not really about the technology. Sure, sometimes which technology to adopt is a make or break choice. More often, your success as an organization depends more on other factors, such as perseverence, thoroughness, being receptive to the market, customers, or clients, or willingness and ability to communicate among yourselves.

Obviously I can't offer advice to Alessandro since I don't know his actual situation, but I think it might be worth his considering just going with the flow. If they're allergic to XSLT, so be it: don't spend your energies fighting border skirmishes. Chances are, you can still find opportunities to use XSLT where it's especially well suited, solve real problems, demonstrate simple solutions, use it when enables doing things faster or better or otherwise impractical. In the meantime, you're also gaining valuable experience in other technologies, and hopefully making a few friends.

Cheers,
Wendell



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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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