RE: Venting

["Didier PH Martin" <martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

HI David,
<YourComment>
I'm impressd with your ability to determine that FO's will be over-wrought
and extraordinarily ponderous given the very preliminary nature of that
part of the XSL spec. At a minimum, I think XSL FO's will be far more
approachable and usable by mere mortals then DSSSL. (Oh yes, and
IMPLEMENTABLE!!)
<YourComment>

<Reply>
In fact, honestly, we should say _as_ with DSSSL. XSL FOS won't be easier
than DSSSL FOs. You can write an easy DSSSL style sheet as you can write an
easy XSL style sheet. If you are using DSSSL with a good macro set, the
resultant style sheet is very easy to read and write. Both languages have in
their gene the capability to be easy or hard to understand depending on the
usage we do and writing style of the stylesheet developer. Conclusion: Both
languages could be easy or hard depending on the writing style and usage we
do of it. Sorry to include a DSSSL sample but we should know the beast we
are talking about.

To bring some objectivity, here is a sample DSSSL script transforming a XML
document into HTML+CSS :

<style-specification id="test" use="htmlfom">
(root
    (make html
	 (process-children)))

(element breakfast-menu
    (make body
	  css-style: "font-family:helvetica,sans
sherif;font-size:12pt;background-color:#EEEEEE"
    	  (process-children)))

(element food
    (make display-group
    (make div
	 css-style:  "background-color:teal;color:white;padding:4px"
      	 (process-matching-children "name")
 	 (literal " - ")
	 (process-matching-children "price"))
    (make div
	 css-style: "margin-left:20px;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:10pt;"
	 (process-matching-children "description")
	 (process-matching-children "calories"))))

(element name
    (make span
	 css-style: "font-weight:bold;color:white"))

(element price
    (make sequence))

(element description
    (make sequence))

(element calories
    (make span
	   css-style: "font-style:italic"
	   (literal " ")
	   (make sequence)
	   (literal " calories per serving")))

</style-specification>

<external-specification id="htmlfom" document="htmlfom.dsl">

</Reply>

Regards
Didier PH Martin
mailto:martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.netfolder.com


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