Subject: Re: Language is not markup and markup is not language. From: "Chuck White" <chuck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 11:26:37 -0700 |
---------- David LeBlanc wrote: <snip> It seems to me that the time of the XSL comittee could be better spent developing a good STYLE and/or TRANSFORMATION notation rather then diluting the effort with procedural language elements. </snip> ---------------- This is a heck of a valid argument, which I hope will not be reduced to a debate about how a "procedural" language is defined. XSLT may or may not be a procedural language in the strict sense of the word, but who cares if it is or not? No matter what you call it, it's complex. As a non-programmer, when I first viewed the XSLT spec I nearly gagged on my Cheerios. As a non-programmer who programs anyway, I've grown to like XSL and XSLT, but I've had to force-feed much of it into my brain, which naturally resists anything with parentheses and braces as a matter of course. So it may be very nifty that we have a style sheet language that can manipulate strings, but I was under the impression that the reason for developing a DOM standard was so that this kind of functionality could be managed through languages like ECMAScript and Java. I think it's a little late in the game to be quashing XSL or XSLT, but I think the W3C should begin to ask itself how much it wants to get involved in these procedural issues, and how much more complex things should become in the near future. As it stands now, 99% of the web developers I know will NOT use XSL for any kind of *client* side processing until there is 100% browser support, sometime in the year 2525. And that's if the language had been kept fairly simple. Having said all that, however, as a designer, I can say that maybe the W3C is trying to prevent the kinds of things that are wrong with print publishing from happening on the Web, and this is the approach. If the cost in developing standards that will result in consistency across platforms is added complexity within a style sheet language, maybe I'm for that. The danger, however, that few people will use it is quite real, and should be considered with each step taken. thanks Chuck White Creative Director Advance Recruitment Advertising, Inc. chuck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx visit the SF Bay Area's Premier Job Site: http://www.bajobs.com XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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