Re: [xsl] Applying XSL transformation to non-xml (but fixed structure) file

[Michael Kay <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 02/06/2010 11:32, Christian Schouten wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I need to apply an XSL transformation to a non-xml file that has a fixed
> structure.
> The goal is to read in the file, add/edit/delete a record and write it
> back.
>
> A sample file (start to finish) is as below:
>    

It's very hard to judge from one sample file what is the range of 
possible inputs that your program needs to deal with; in particular, 
whether you can get by with a simple line-by-line analysis using regular 
expressions, or whether you need to do full recursive parsing based on a 
BNF grammar. Superficially, it looks like the second case, but I might 
be misjudging. The answer to this question fundamentally affects the 
design approach you adopt. In the second case, I would recommend writing 
a parser for the input format (perhaps using a tool such as JavaCC) that 
converts it into XML, and then write the XSLT transformation to process 
the resulting XML.

Michael Kay
Saxonica