RE: [xsl] Converting wd-XSL to XSLT

Subject: RE: [xsl] Converting wd-XSL to XSLT
From: "Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 23:55:07 -0000
You've got a problem, because there's very little knowledge or documentation
around for WD-xsl, and what there is is fast disappearing. But you're
definitely taking the right approach.

xsl:eval IIRC often does the job that you would do in XSLT using
xsl:value-of, but it's certainly not a one-to-one mapping.

xsl:script was used for embedding JavaScript. Because of the limitations of
the WD-xsl language and the inexperience of its users, WD-xsl stylesheets
often contain vast amounts of embedded script. You can reproduce this in
MSXML3 using <msxml:script> elements, but in most cases it would be much
better to translate it to native XSLT code.

That's about all I can offer you really...

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/ 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Smith [mailto:jimsmith0@xxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 09 February 2005 22:59
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [xsl] Converting wd-XSL to XSLT
> 
> I've recently begun a job that will require me to get the hang of XSL,
> so I'm still a bit over my head.
> 
> I'm working with an online database which allows clients to get
> information from tables in XML, and then create custom views with XSL.
>  Before I was brought on, my co-workers, discovered a cache of XSL
> stylesheets provided by database, and we've been tweaking those files
> to suit our purposes.
> 
> The problem is that I've come to learn that all of these stylesheets
> are in wd-XSL, which I presume is the reason they won't work in
> Mozilla or Firefox.  I'd like to convert them, but I don't know how. 
> I've determined that the <xsl:eval> and <xsl:script> tags are
> outdated, but I don't know what to replace them with.  I began to give
> in to writing all future stylesheets in wd-XSL, but I quickly realized
> that a lot of the code I've been learning from my XSLT books isn't
> going to be backwards-compatible.  So it's looking like I only know
> enough about each version to get nothing done with either of them.
> 
> I learned about a program for converting wd-XSL to XSLT, but the
> resulting code didn't make a lot of sense.  I'd much rather learn how
> to convert from one to the other by hand, so that I can get a feel for
> the differences between them.  Can anyone help me?
> 
> Jim Smith

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