Re: More XSL Discussion

[Norman Walsh <norm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

/ Sean Mc Grath <digitome@xxxxxx> was heard to say:
[...]
| So what are you saying? That doing this:
| 
| <!-- XSL based report writer written in two seconds. Understandable
| in one second, and a lot easier to write, maintain and run than
| an equivalent perl, python, omnimark, c++, scheme, tcl, adept program
| would ever be -->
| <element type = "chapter">
|  <element type = "sect1">
|   <target-element type = "title">
|    println (...) 
| 
| is an abuse of XSL?

That example is so minimal that it's difficult to say.  Adding a few
wrappers for clarity, do you mean

<rule>
<pattern>
<element type="chapter">
 <element type="sect1">
  <target-element type="title"/>
 </element>
</element>
</pattern>
<action>
<text>println (...)</text>
</action>
</rule>

Yes, that's XSL.  It turns the title element in a particular context
into a text flow object containing the literal string "println (...)".

If you've built a stylesheet that constructs some sort of a program
that you can compile, more power to you ;-)

If you meant something else, could you please describe what you meant
in a little more detail?

| There are two sides to the XSL biscuit as I see it. 
| 
| 1) a) Declarative syntax for patterns/actions
|    b) Implicit tree walk and pattern triggering via rule arbitration
| 
| 2) the flow object construction apparatus
| 
| You seem to think they are inextricable. I fail to see why this
| has to be true. That is my "disconnect". I see value

I think it depends what you mean by "has to be true".  If you build
an engine that does something else with the actions or automatically 
processes the actions in some way, that's fine, but it's not XSL,
as I see it.

| >it does not create an "output format," it builds a tree; it
| >is inherently object-based.  It makes no sense in this light
| >to talk of half elements.
| 
| I don't see why this must be so. I would like to see some good
| arguments as to why this must be so as you seem to be
| suggesting.

What _else_ do you want to do?  I don't see what you've got in
mind...

                                        Cheers,
                                          norm
-- 
Norman Walsh <nwalsh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> | I do not suffer from insanity. I
Senior Application Analyst          | enjoy every moment of it.
ArborText, Inc. (www.arbortext.com) | 
413.549.3868 Voice/FAX              | 


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