RE: [xsl] Wishes for XSL revisions ...

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jonathan and all,

At 03:15 PM 12/27/01, you wrote:
> I agree  "Go all the way" for a programming language. XSL even does not
> have a "break" statement. For a simple thing, using XSL has to write
> piles of piles of code.

Whatever happened to the idea of using the right tool for the job? Any 
number of other languages have better and better support for XML built in.

If XSL turns into an all-purpose combination utility 
knife-wrench-screwdriver-with-magnifying-glass-bottle-opener, it'll be 
impossible to learn as well as implement.

If you have to write piles and piles of code to do a simple thing in XSLT, 
then maybe you're trying to use the wrong tool. Some things that are hard 
in other languages, are exceedingly simple in XSLT and don't require piles 
and piles of code. It is on these cases that XSLT's success is built -- not 
on the edge cases which are possible but difficult (and on which this list 
naturally spends a preponderance of time and energy -- partly just trying 
to help, partly out of interest and curiosity in training our beloved and 
faithful dog to dance).

If we say "Wow, XSLT is powerful, let's get it so it can draw maps", we may 
end up killing exactly what made it so good to begin with. You can always 
generate your SVG with the help of Java, Python or C if you need heavy 
number-crunching and layout algorithms.

What *I* think would be nice would be the capability to call, from within 
your stylesheet, home-grown extension elements and functions (maybe in your 
own namespace?) to do things that XSLT doesn't do. But wait! that's in XSLT 
1.0!

Cheers,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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