recommended refs for XSLT newbies

[Mike Brown <mbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just wanted to offer testimonials for the following references of interest
to XSLT newbies like me:

1. This XSL mailing list and its archive at
http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/archive/
...a list that's still in its youth, when everyone's helpful and supportive,
and every discussion is informative and interesting. (Enjoy it while it
lasts!)

2. Lars Garshol's XML Processing Paradigms presentation materials at
http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsga/download/artikler/processing.pdf
...very good overview of concepts, leading into details about the internals
of particular XML processors. Worth looking over the whole thing just to
clarify conceptual issues.

3. Crane Softwrights' Introduction to XSLT course materials at
http://www.cranesoftwrights.com/training/
...It costs 40 bucks for 200 slides packaged 3 ways (1-up, 2-up, and 4-up
PDF files), but you get free future updates, and it's quite helpful in that
it touches on just about everything in XSLT, from concepts to how-to's for
particular XSLT instructions, with a fair amount of examples and explanatory
notes.

Like the other references, it's not a perfect tutorial on its own -- at
times it's apparent that some verbal elucidation is intended to accompany
the content of the slides. But in general it's easy to follow, and for what
you get, $40 for an individual license is very fair. I recommend it to
anyone who is debating on whether or not to purchase it.

I printed my 2-up slides and took them to Kinko's to be cut, collated and
bound ($15). Now I'm the envy of my office! Well, not really, but I think
it's cool. Better than waiting on O'Reilly, anyway.

4. The XSLT spec at http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xslt
... very precise like a spec should be. Sure, it's lacking in examples and
assumes you're familiar with some esoteric terminology and concepts, but the
more you go back to it as a reference and not a tutorial, the more it makes
sense.

If I could make three suggestions for all of the above... 
more code examples, more code examples, and more code examples! :)

-Mike


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