Subject: Re: [xsl] XSLT Hello World From: Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt <STAMMW@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:35:34 +0100 |
> ... > Indeed, the Hello World I like to use looks like this: > > <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" > xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> > > </xsl:stylesheet> > > I.e., a stylesheet with no templates at all. (You can also write it > as an empty element if you prefer.) > Not XSLT 2.0, but without a template as you requested (from [1]): <?xml-stylesheet href="#" type="text/xsl"?> <html xsl:version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <b><xsl:value-of select="concat('hello, ', 'world')"/></b> </html> This would be minimal, just click [2]: <?xml-stylesheet href="#" type="text/xsl"?> <html xsl:version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" >Hello world</html> [1] https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/HermannSW/entry/literal_result_element_as_stylesheet_in_big5_browsers16 [2] http://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/xsl-list/hello0.xsl.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/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IBM Deutschland Research & Development GmbH Vorsitzende des Aufsichtsrats: Martina Koederitz Geschaeftsfuehrung: Dirk Wittkopp Sitz der Gesellschaft: Boeblingen Registergericht: Amtsgericht Stuttgart, HRB 243294 From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Date: 03/24/2014 05:05 PM Subject: [xsl] XSLT Hello World Hi, Over in that other thread, Ihe said: > Extracting text from an XML document is the hello world of XSLT. > text() would appear to be an obvious way of doing that and it's really > important that it entails no surprises. If I were an XSLT antagonist > that is exactly the sort of thing I would home in on to portray the > language as arcane, difficult to use and not suitable for my project. I find this really quite interesting. One thing I stress to beginners is that if they're starting to learn the language using only a syntax reference plus whatever they might know about Perl, Python or Java, they are heading for a world of hurt. It's not like your granddaddy's programming language, and when you assume things like "text() is the way to get my data into the output, because it says 'text'" ... ouch. Indeed, the Hello World I like to use looks like this: <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> </xsl:stylesheet> I.e., a stylesheet with no templates at all. (You can also write it as an empty element if you prefer.) After having acknowledged our astonishment at the results of running this, we can talk about the built-in templates. And then we start writing templates of our own ... matching elements, not text nodes. We do this with a source document with mixed content (such as <doc>Hello <who>World</who></doc> ), (so we can try a few things out such as matching elements in line), and then a slightly more elaborate instance (perhaps including some comments or processing instructions so we can illustrate aspects of the data model, such as text nodes) . Take in a few points of fact, practice for an hour or two, and get a good night's sleep, and you no longer run the risk that you will be surprised by 'text()' in XSLT. Talking about the processing model in the context of documents with mixed content also gives us an early opportunity to start thinking about XSLT's purposes, strengths and weaknesses. I know this approach may reinforce the impressions of some programmers that XSLT is, as Ihe says, "arcane, difficult to use and not suitable for my project". To this my only answer is in the doing of it. Assuming your problem is in fact in XSLT's sweet spot, showing how powerful and easy XSLT is ... once you have a clue ... answers the critique by itself. If your problem isn't in XSLT's sweet spot, I ask why are you interested in it. Yes, XSLT is generally very powerful, and can be used for problems often quite different from the kinds of document processing for which it was designed. But please please don't expect an easy time trying to tackle one of those in XSLT before you have a feel for templates and traversals. The thing about "arcane" is also relative. Indeed, if you aren't naturally a curious sort with a reasonable tolerance for the arcane, one wonders why you expect to do well with programming at all. Cheers, Wendell -- Wendell Piez | http://www.wendellpiez.com XML | XSLT | electronic publishing Eat Your Vegetables _____oo_________o_o___ooooo____ooooooo_^
Current Thread |
---|
|
<- Previous | Index | Next -> |
---|---|---|
Re: [xsl] XSLT Hello World, Graydon | Thread | [xsl] Civil Discourse Required on X, Tommie Usdin |
Re: [xsl] XSLT Hello World, Andrew Welch | Date | Re: [xsl] XSLT Hello World, Ihe Onwuka |
Month |