RE: The XSL-List Digest V2 #146

Subject: RE: The XSL-List Digest V2 #146
From: Linda van den Brink <lvdbrink@xxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 10:52:35 +0200
Dave Pawson wrote: 
"Not 'hard' publishing, but hard enough for my small brain.
Or is that just contradicting Michael again, XSL is for
the clever? sorry, I'm not clever, it took me a whole week
before I had covered (enough for my needs) XSLT.
About the same time as it took me to get my head
around Omnimark."

Don't underestimate yourself: According to Mr Leventhal you *are* clever. It
took me about a week to cover XSL as well, and Mr. Leventhal said I must be
clever. (I don't know if he meant it as a compliment though :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Pawson [mailto:dave.pawson@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 1999 11:07 PM
To: xsl list
Subject: Re: The XSL-List Digest V2 #146


From: Kurt Donath <kurt.donath@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: XSL-FO Does it have the guts?
<quote>
In Leventhal's critic of XSL on xml.com, one of his first
arguments
against XSL is that it provides flow objects that don't make
sense on
the web, such as page flow objects.  Then he says that the
number of
people who will be publishing to more than one media (paper
and web)
will be small in number, and they can easily pick up
existing standards:
CSS, and DSSSL to do that kind of publishing.  He later goes
onto state:
"I am qualified to give an expert opinion in this area and
my opinion is
that DSSSL and XSL are hard!"  Since I am not an expert in
formatting/transformation languages, I'm trying to validate
this claim.

I buy into the *concept* that XSL will be able to publish to
more than
one media with the same source and formatting language, and
I think
Leventhal misses the point that XML is all about looking
beyond the
web.  Does the set of flow objects currently in the XSL spec
have enough
power for publishing?  On the continuum from 'easy' to
'hard' publishing
jobs, what will XSL be able to address? </quote>

For my customers it has a fighting chance.
Large Print? [My definition goes from clear at 12pt to large
at 24pt], yes
- today via fop, tomorrow via ....? Sebastians FOTeX?
HTML for the web, Yep.
ASCII Text on disk, Yep, again via fo or XSLT.
Braille, Yep, via the java interface, then with fo's to
format.
Moon, Yep, via fo's.
Audio, Yep, via XSLT to text and synth voice.

Not 'hard' publishing, but hard enough for my small brain.
Or is that just contradicting Michael again, XSL is for
the clever? sorry, I'm not clever, it took me a whole week
before I had covered (enough for my needs) XSLT.
About the same time as it took me to get my head
around Omnimark.


Also wholly client side, I wouldn't know a server if it bit
me,
never mind programming one.

Or perhaps my customers don't count to M Leventhal, being a
minority?

Some of us want multi-media.  Some of us need other
than the web as deliverables. James T described it as being
<quote>beyond the web</quote>. Nice expression.

DaveP




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