Re: Complex transformations using Jade

[Brandon Ibach <bibach@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting joseph, Gershon <Gershon_joseph@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Has anyone done complex SGML transformations using Jade? I spent a day
> investigating using Jade to transform a flat RTF-like instance to a DocBook
> like instance. The problem is that, while source instance has all elements
> at the same level (para), the target must have elements inside elements,
> e.g., title and para inside section. I have started to write this
> transformation in Omnimark, but would prefer a standards-based solution if
> it is possible.
> 
> Is the transformation side of DSSSL, for which there is not yet an engine,
> capable of this type of transformation, or is it like XSLT, meant for
> preparing an instance for formatting, and not full-bore complex
> transformations?
> 
   While I do, personally, believe that the DSSSL transformation
language would serve as a better base for implementing these types of
transformations, Jade's non-standard SGML transformation backend works
quite nicely for this sort of thing.  Just look at what Norm Walsh has
done with it to create the Docbook->HTML style sheet.
   I'm not sure I completely understand your concern about elements
inside other elements, but I'm relatively sure you can do it with this
method.
   If you'd like, I could post a stylesheet (with example input and
output documents) that I created to transform a custom DTD into HTML
(which is just another SGML DTD, really).  It probably shows most of
the constructs that you'd use, as well as a few neat tricks to make
some parts of the process a little easier (such as an interesting
"template" mechanism for transforming certain parts).  Let me know.

-Brandon :)


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