Re: [xsl] Announcement: Dexter - XSL Transform Generation Tool

Subject: Re: [xsl] Announcement: Dexter - XSL Transform Generation Tool
From: Robert Koberg <rob@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:07:35 -0500
Hi,

IMO this is more general to XSL as a way to create easy templates for
XSL (and pretty much any other language). It seems at least a few people
are going in this direction. 

It really is a nice way to separate the concerns of the XSL author from
the designer/HTMLer type. I know most of us on this list would prefer to
just embed the HTML in the XSL, but it is not easy for most HTMLers to
pick up XSL (I don't care what anybody else says). 

The HTMLer creates the page with layout and sample/mock-up content which
can be replaced and/or extended at transform time. The HTMLer gets to
see the page without seeing template code and having to mentally filter
out non-result code. 

There are a couple of ways to achieve this (hinting to the transform
what to do):

- namespaced attributes and elements which have no text content
- standard attribute values for class and ids
- even JSON structures in a script element (the transform can use
Dmitre's FXSL to convert JSON to XML or pass it to a URIResolver to
return XML)
- or some combination
- more ways??

The last two have the benefit of not affecting HTML rendering or
requiring a custom schema or DTD to be used by an HTML editor/IDE

Perhaps something to build on or even just use is Zope's Page Templates:

http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Books/ZopeBook/2_6Edition/ZPT.stx

best,
-Rob

p.s. Dexter doesn't build as DexterityConstants.DEXTER doesn't exist


On Fri, 2008-01-18 at 08:36 -0500, XSL-List Owner wrote:
> It is beginning to look like perhaps the Dexter folks should create a 
> list for discussion of their product. It seems to me that this 
> conversation is more about a tool than about XSL, and thus it seems 
> to me that it is off topic for XSL-List.
> 
> One pointer to the new location of the Dexter support discussion 
> would be welcome on XSL-List, but after that please take this 
> conversation to a tool-specific forum.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> -- Tommie

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