Re: [xsl] XSL:FO Vs Reporting Tools

Subject: Re: [xsl] XSL:FO Vs Reporting Tools
From: Vasu Chakkera <vasucv@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 06:27:29 +0100
very valuable, thanks

On 13 October 2011 16:09, G. Ken Holman <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> If all of your formatting requirements are met by both XSLT/XSL-FO and
> Jaspersoft, then you will have to try and leverage "soft" benefits:
>
> (1) - multiple independent vendors of XSLT/XSL-FO engines, thus not having
> single supplier problems (should, say, the supplier stop supporting the
tool
> you are using)
> (2) - multiple independent sources of XSLT/XSL-FO training and resource
> materials (for example we sell books on XSLT and XSL-FO and a video on XSLT
> (which includes a copy of the book))
> (3) - multiple applications of XSLT/XSL-FO expertise to other areas of your
> business (should, say, you wish to produce technical manuals that are not
> created by a "report generator") will leverage any investment you make in
> learning XSLT/XSL-FO or buying XSLT/XSL-FO technologies to other areas of
> your company
>
> You may wish to play up the features of XSL-FO, such as flexibly adding
> hyperlinks to your reports, alphabetized indexes and tables of content,
etc.
> if these are features not available with JasperSoft or are not easy or
> flexible to use.
>
> I'm assuming that since you are looking at XSLT that your source content is
> already in XML.  Compare and contrast working with XML from C++ and C to
> working with XML from XSLT and XQuery:  XSLT is designed *for* XML and its
> expression language manifests the result you want by using XML syntax.
 This
> is unlike programming languages where XML is an add-on to the language
> accessed through a subroutine library.  I would far more trust the
integrity
> of the transformation of XML and its result when using XSLT and its
inherent
> XML than trying to make sure I remembered to do everything right for XML
> when using another programming language.
>
> Just some thoughts.  I don't always win the fight with the above arguments
> as it is difficult to sway adherents of other languages who fail to see the
> light about XML and XSLT.  Then again, I just get called a proselyte for
> having adopted XSLT and being preachy about it.  I do know that I've been
> called in after the fact to clean up their messes when they make 11th hour
> changes to their Java or C++ that mess up things like Unicode encodings or
> markup constraints.  The "oh, I didn't think about that", or "oh, I didn't
> know about that" are weak defensive arguments when they originally claimed
> they didn't need XSLT because they could do everything they needed in the
> ______ language.  I don't have to think about it because XSLT and XQuery
are
> built by and for XML.
>
> I hope this helps.  I think you'll find it an uphill battle, but the battle
> won will be a big benefit to your company and not just in report writing.
>
> . . . . . . . . . . Ken
>
> At 2011-10-13 15:50 +0100, Vasu Chakkera wrote:
>>
>> Guys,
>> I am in a situation where I am having to advocate that xsl:fo is
>> great( what a pity!!)  .. Some one came up with jaspersoft (
>> http://www.jaspersoft.com/ ) and is hell bent on thinking that XSLT is
>> error prone ( I guess they come from a hard core c++, c background)
>> and they do not think that XSLT is a great Idea. I tried to reason
>> with my colleagues that if XSLT were error prone, most publishing
>> companies will go crashing down and most Banks will go out of
>> business. These guys agree , but there are some business decision
>> makers who believe that XSLT is a no no .. I have made a document
>> listing the sooper gud things ... but need to know... has anyone tried
>> this jaspersoft thing and is there any points I can get from peoples
>> experiences on why we should go to Jaspersoft and not do XSL:FO.. I am
>> trying to get some points that i can add to my advocacy document.
>> Vasu
>
>
> --
> Contact us for world-wide XML consulting and instructor-led training
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> G. Ken Holman                   mailto:gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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>
>



--
Vasu Chakkera
NodeLogic Limited
Oxford
www.node-logic.com
==============

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