Gowri,
At 12:26 PM 3/15/2006, you wrote:
Agree, it's difficult for beginners like me to either
understand or debug. And I did get an overwhelming
response from this list for my post on client-side vs
server-side. We support two browsers - IE and Mozilla.
So my plan is to create a client-side and a
server-side functioning example to show my team. Don't
want to extend this discussion anymore because I will
get into trouble with Tommie :)
Actually if it's actually about XSL it won't get you into trouble.
It was when the earlier thread started fraying off in directions not
directly related to XSL itself that it went awry. As the guidelines
state, detailed discussions of *particular* processors don't really
belong on the list; nor do arcane debates about the current
evolutionary stage of networked media technologies in general (much
as they might be fun, or make a fine paper for the Extreme 2006
conference, of which our List Owner is a co-chair).
That is, I think the thread was fine until it came to its conclusion,
namely that "client-side can work if you can control the variables,
and can thus be recommended for particular deployment scenarios". It
was when it continued on into debates about whether and how well
particular hypothetical scenarios met those criteria that it got into
trouble. (Note that that conversation continued without explicit
consideration of any actual scenario, such as yours.)
My own take on the source of this confusion is that inevitably, one
of the critical variables to be controlled is the developer's own
level of expertise, both with XSLT and with all the related
technologies of browsers and the web in general. In an individual
case, I may know what that is and can control for it: when I'm the
developer I will assume my own level of expertise, and that moreover
it will change in ways mostly predictable by me (if I'm honest :-).
But in the general case, who's to say? The discussion thus took on a
kind of blind-men-and-elephant quality, so familiar in debates about
what is partially and differently known. (So: Yes, you can do
client-side. Are you ready? Are the benefits worth being that much
closer to the edge? It could be. Some of us like it out on the edge.)
Given that this question couldn't be answered in the general case,
but the debate went off anyway without addressing this critical
factor up front, the thread had lived its useful life. Which was
evident since it had stopped being about XSLT and started being about
other XML- and web-related stuff.
Please note that I can't read the list owner's mind better than
anyone. It's just how I read the available text.
Cheers,
Wendell
======================================================================
Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
======================================================================