Re: [xsl] After a refresher on C programming, I have a greater appreciation for XSLT

[Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt <STAMMW@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Roger,

> I am happy to be programming in XSLT. I am happy to be working at the
> abstraction of symbols (strings, string manipulations, elements,
> attributes) and not numbers. I am happy that the XSLT processor takes
> care of memory management for me.
>
you have to pay a price for this -- execution speed.


> I am happy to be working at the abstraction of tree navigation (parent,
> ancestor, child, descendant, sibling traversals) and not pointers.
>
You can have "XSLT pointers" as well ;-)
http://www.biglist.com/lists/lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/archives/201009/msg00179.html

This is the example referenced in the posting:
http://www.stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/xsl-list/xsltPointers/sevennodetypes.xml


Mit besten Gruessen / Best wishes,

Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt
Level 3 support for XML Compiler team and Fixpack team lead
WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliances
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/HermannSW/
https://twitter.com/HermannSW/
http://stamm-wilbrandt.de/GraphvizFiddle/
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  From:       "Costello, Roger L." <costello@xxxxxxxxx>                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                              
  To:         "xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,                                                            
                                                                                                                                              
  Date:       03/17/2014 09:22 PM                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                              
  Subject:    [xsl] After a refresher on C programming, I have a greater appreciation for XSLT                                                
                                                                                                                                              





Hi Folks,

Lately I have been refreshing my memory on C programming (because a book
that I am reading gives its examples in C).

Reading the C book has given me a better appreciation for the advances that
have been made in modern programming languages. Here are a few things that
struck me as I read the C book:

- In C most things are treated as numbers. Characters are treated as
numbers (you can even perform arithmetic on characters). Logical values
(true/false) are treated as numbers.

- Memory management is of concern to a C programmer. C programmers need to
ensure that the code doesn't reference past the end of an array. A
programmer must ensure that performing arithmetic on a variable does not
produce a value that exceeds the allotted memory for the variable (thereby
resulting in "buffer overflow"). A programmer may call a function to find
out the amount of memory being used (sizeof) by an array or call a function
to allocate a certain quantity of memory (malloc).

- Pointers must be carefully managed and care must be taken when traversing
the pointers.

I am happy to be programming in XSLT. I am happy to be working at the
abstraction of symbols (strings, string manipulations, elements,
attributes) and not numbers. I am happy that the XSLT processor takes care
of memory management for me. I am happy to be working at the abstraction of
tree navigation (parent, ancestor, child, descendant, sibling traversals)
and not pointers.

/Roger