Re: [xsl] Rescuing XSLT from Niche Status

Subject: Re: [xsl] Rescuing XSLT from Niche Status
From: "Sebastian Rahtz" <sebastian.rahtz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 21:52:13 +0000
David Carlisle writes:
 > But if you are converting a document format of any complexity down to
 > HTML (for example) the template rule driven approach is far more natural
 > and easier to code in XSLT as the output is driven by the input, you
 > don't need to sketch out the entire format of the document; If you come
 > across a list in the input, convert it to an HTML list, and carry on
 > etc..

I suppose I am puzzled too by the suggestion. nothing wrong with pull,
but it seems to me that it takes *longer* to get output. I teach the
subject by saying "let everything fall through the defaults and see
what happens". that way, you get all the input in the output. In the
Jacobs method, you get nothing in the output by default. I find this
deeply weird.

I suppose the explanation is here:

"This allows us to leverage the experience most people have with using
an HTML templating language (e.g. ASP, PHP, JSP, Cold Fusion, Web
Macro, etc). These templating languages are all based on the basic
premise that HTML comes first and all enhancements are then embedded
in special tags. Thus, the problem is reframed as: how do I create
XSL-enhanced HTML documents?"

*If* you come from this background, its all well and good. I don't (I
am fairly proud to say that I have almost never written any HTML!), so I
find the approach counter-intuitive. My basic premise is that I start with
an XML file, and I want to see it in the web browser.

I'm going to try the approach next week and see what happens...

Sebastian Rahtz


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