Subject: RE: [xsl] Transform XML to XML From: "Mike Schinkel" <mikes@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 18:09:02 -0400 |
>> Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take you to task. (Your style of approach made me think I could take off the kid gloves. No problem, you saw my smiley, right? >> And besides, you'd already figured out for yourself that you needed an identity transform, without knowing what to call it. That in itself requires a leap of insight into how to approach problems of transformation, which is very good grounds for hope.) Thanks for the kudos. Yes, I actually think I have done some pretty sophisticated stuff already. But I still don't think I have my head around the nuances, and each time I sit down to try something it just doesn't work right. It's like I loose the understanding I have every time I walk away from XSLT for longer than a week or two. Last night I beat my head against my monitor for five hours trying to do something what I thought should be simple, and never got it done. :( >> Mainly I wanted to convey the word that your worries are over (well okay I exaggerate): here, all the subtleties of XSLT's weird ways are understood, appreciated and approved of (mostly) -- and explained not infrequently. That does give me some good comfort, thanks. One thing I do really dislike about XSLT, at least from what I understand, is there doesn't seem to be a way to write robust code in XSLT; if my input XML is off by a bit (i.e. well-formed but not validated by a schema), or if I make a boneheaded change to the XSL, the transform may not output what I expect but there's little way for me to catch the error without painstaking proofreading after each transform (scenario: after somethings been printed for a while; opps, looks our XSL forgot to include that chapter!) >> So if the new bits of information -- about the identity transform, the built-in default templates and their function (which the identity template overrides), and the difference and marvelous complimentarity between matching (xsl:template) and selecting (xsl:apply-templates) -- don't all by themselves flood your brain with understanding -- again, please feel free to post. Now that you mention it...why are their default templates and is there any way to turn them off? They are almost never what I want, and they almost always seem to give me conceptual trouble when I'm trying to figure out why my transform isn't working like I expect. Also, matching and selecting do confuse me. I'm best when I do <xsl:call-template> :) Also, the matching and selecting part seem so fragile, like one tiny thing is off and they don't work correctly. Is there anything short you can tell me that might help me grok those? BTW, I own and have read about five total books on XSLT and on XPath, and another four on XSL:FO. -Mike P.S. If you'd like to see the latest output from the biggest XSL project I've worked on, you can find them here: http://www.howtoselectguides.com/dotnet/pdf/ and http://www.howtoselectguides.com/dotnet/obfuscators/ The content for HTML format Guides are each in a large XML file (for which I need to get a schema written.) I eventually want to use XSL:FO to create PDF files out of the XML too, but that's a few days down the road. :) -----Original Message----- From: Wendell Piez [mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 5:29 PM To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: [xsl] Transform XML to XML Mike, At 04:11 PM 8/25/2005, you wrote: > >> That could be because your concept of what's happening internally > >> is >inaccurate, leading you to mistaken ideas about the way things need to >be set up so that everything will happen the way you want it. > >Uh, well, duh! :) Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take you to task. (Your style of approach made me think I could take off the kid gloves. And besides, you'd already figured out for yourself that you needed an identity transform, without knowing what to call it. That in itself requires a leap of insight into how to approach problems of transformation, which is very good grounds for hope.) >Of course that's the case. I do find myself getting frustrated and >almost angry at it because of how it behaves, but I guess that's my own >personal shortcoming. :) > >Anywho, that's why I joined this list: to try to finally figure it out >(and to vent every so often. :) Please do: all venting about XSLT is on-topic (and so are responses as long as the topic remains XSLT). Mainly I wanted to convey the word that your worries are over (well okay I exaggerate): here, all the subtleties of XSLT's weird ways are understood, appreciated and approved of (mostly) -- and explained not infrequently. So if the new bits of information -- about the identity transform, the built-in default templates and their function (which the identity template overrides), and the difference and marvelous complimentarity between matching (xsl:template) and selecting (xsl:apply-templates) -- don't all by themselves flood your brain with understanding -- again, please feel free to post. Cheers, Wendell ====================================================================== Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com 17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635 Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631 Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML ======================================================================
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