Re: [xsl] Specification of a transform.

[davep <davep@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/09/13 03:19, Paul Tyson wrote:
> On Mon, 2013-09-09 at 08:42 +0100, davep wrote:
> > Given schema A as input XML. Schema B as XML output.
> >     Assume no hierarchical simple relationship.
> >     Assume mapping of values needed from input values to output values.
> >     Assume literals are needed.
> > How do (might) you specify the required transform?
>
> I have been struggling with a problem I think is similar to the one you
> have posed, except that it involves RDF graphs instead of XML schemas
> and instances. But since a tree is a specialized graph, the techniques
> for graphs should work for XML.
>
> I was led to a solution whereby I specified the expected outcomes in a
> generic rule language. I selected ISO Common Logic. Other options would
> have been RuleML or RIF.

http://ruleml.org/rif/rulelog/spec/Rulelog.html
and http://ruleml.org/papers/ for associated papers.

Does this seem like providing a formalism for plain English?
See http://ruleml.org/papers/tutorial-ruleml-20050513.html


> The rules are expressed as quantified logical formulas, mainly of the
> form "for all things like this in the world of A, there must exist
> things like that in the world of B". Or conversely "If something like
> this exists in B, then something like that must exist in A."

Not unlike Schematron.

> I'm sure there must be a large literature out there that hasn't filtered
> down to general industrial usage--particularly in XML practice--, which
> would specify the types of rules and transformations that are amenable
> to this approach. I'm also pretty sure there are limitations, in that
> some types of transformations cannot be specified in this manner. But I
> believe there is a large subset of practical problems that can be
> tackled this way.

Lots of unknowns.

> Rules specified in a generic language can be put to different purposes:
> for generating test cases; for generating code for certain
> well-understood transformations; for generating queries over the
> datasets to check for rule violations; and for generating human-readable
> documentation.
>
> I have not had the opportunity to do much of this in XML, although I
> developed something similar using schematron for an XML validation
> problem.
>
> Regards,
> --Paul

Thanks Paul.





regards

--
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk