Re: [xsl] [XSL] XSL Browser Integration

["M. David Peterson" <m.david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 03:15:11 -0600, Alain <alainb06@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> (unreliable on client-side)

If anyone uses the "unreliable on client-side" argument, question their  
motives.

Some facts,

 * Of *ALL* of the client-side standards, XSLT is by far and beyond the  
most reliable when it comes to cross-browser support.
    * Cross-browser CSS and Javascript support is spotty.
    * CSS and Javascript debugging tools are of poor quality or  
non-existent.
    * XSLT debugging tools are of high quality and are plentiful (non  
browser-based tools)
    * Using a single *cross-browser* supported command you can instantiate  
an entire transformation process.
    * Of all four major browser vendors (MSFT, Mozilla, Apple, Opera) only  
one of those manafacturers has an incomplete XSLT 1.0 implementation.
    * The single vendor w/o a complete implementation (lack of document  
function support) is Opera which represents less than 1% browser market  
share.
    * PI-based client-side transformations encourages proper REST-based  
development practices.
    * Using a coombination of PI-based transforms, the document function,  
data compression, and built-in browser-based caching that comes for free  
you can reduce the amount of data sent with each new page to less than 10%  
of your typical pre-rendered HTML page.
    * Client-side XSLT encourages code re-use.
    * XSLT in general encourages cross-organization best practices  
adherence.
    * Client-side XSLT and server-side XSLT are not mutually exclusive, or  
in other words it's not a choice to use one or other but not both.
    * Using them together creates an *extremely* powerful combination, as  
does adding XQuery to the mix.  This becomes especially powerful when you  
use Saxon and/or Saxon on .NET as your server-side processor as it provide  
XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, and XQuery 1.0 support as part of the same  
package/assembly.
    * There are more reasons.  I'd be happy to share them w/ you if you'd  
like.

 * There are some gotchas.
    * Abel Braaksma has become the resident expert of what these gotchas  
are as they relate to each of the four major browsers.
    * I'd bet if you asked nicely he would either point you to the various  
related threads from months and years past and/or summarize them for you  
in-line to this thread. ;-)

--
/M:D

M. David Peterson
http://mdavid.name | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354 |  
http://dev.aol.com/blog/3155