Re: [xsl] XSLT Dead?

[Abel Braaksma <abel.online@xxxxxxxxx>]

Andrew Welch wrote:

> In my experience they're usually proficient Java bods, and
> so think XSLT is trivial.

That's, as a matter of fact, my only drawback with XSLT in general: it 
is still quite hard to find people with proficient XSLT (esp. 2.0) 
knowledge or with enough understanding of related languages to quickly 
gain that knowledge. Many programmers think they "understand" XSLT, but 
when I give them a *very* simple test case, they fail miserably with an 
awkward, verbose GOTO style of programming.

> XSLT will not die because of AJAX, because its so much more than a UI
> level language, and only someone with a limited experience would
> suggest otherwise.

Die *because* of AJAX? I thought it got even more alive and kicking than 
it already was, *because* of AJAX. Some (many?) AJAX libraries employ 
XSLT and/or XPath in some way. My own AJAX library does it to a great 
extend (up to a command-parser and rights-system), both server-side and 
client-side and I consider myself lucky that there are so few browser 
peculiarities compared to plain old JavaScript + DHTML techniques to 
achieve the same.

No, if anything, AJAX makes XSLT thrive and XSLT makes the hard parts of 
AJAX a breeze ;)

Cheers,
-- Abel Braaksma