Subject: RE: Re: [xsl] Scope of variables From: cknell@xxxxxxxxxx Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 10:44:56 -0500 |
XSLT is XML and it is a document type and a programming language. XHTML is XML and it is a document format and it is not a programming language. I hope that clears things up. -- Charles Knell cknell@xxxxxxxxxx - email -----Original Message----- From: "Karl J. Stubsjoen" <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Fri, 9 May 2003 07:28:39 -0700 To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [xsl] Scope of variables David, Thanks for the explanation. I am one of those "rooky" programmers; self-taught VB, ASP, XSL and so on. I love listening to this sort of talk, since I have never formaly been around it. Its interesting also when people talk about procedural programming vs. declerative programming. I don't have any idea what these are! What is XSL? Would XML be considered a language or just a document (of some sort)? Karl > > > [DAVID] What did you mean by this statement: > > The "variable value can't change" mantra refers to the fact that there > > is not an analogue of > > x=x+1 > > wich some people, corrupted by procedural languages seem to feel > > is a natural thing to write, whereas it is obviously an affront to the > > laws of nature, unless x happens to be 0:-) > > David > > > > The term variable comes from mathematics and if in mathematics you see > x=x+1 > then one could deduce (by subtracting x from both sides) that > 0=1 > which is false, implying the original statement is false. > > When I first was shown programming (Fortran at school in the mid 70's) > this aspect of fortran allowing variables to change their definition > was the main "strange" thing about programming languages that all the > books stressed. that programming languages had these strange imperative > features because they were designed to be easily executed by machines > rather than easily understood by humans. > > A generation later and things have changed: machines are now more > powerful and so programming languages using more natural declarative > constructs are now feasible. Let the machine do the work and have the > language more suitable for humans. But things are not so simple, it > seems that in the intervening time humans have got used to the > imperative machine-oriented languages and are now unsettled by human > oriented declarative languages. You can't win.... > > David XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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