[xsl] The philosophical implications of an XSLT processor implemented in XSLT

["Roger L Costello costello@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

Michael Kay reports that, within a few weeks, Saxonica will be releasing an
XSLT processor implemented in XSLT.

That will be a key event.

Here is one philosophical implication of that event.

Philosophical Implication #1

Up to this period in time, it has been believed that "system" applications --
such as XSLT processors -- which process XML documents must be written in a
non-XML language such as Java, C#, C++, C, or some other imperative language.
It was believed that XML languages such as XSLT were not sufficient in speed
and/or language facilities to handle the complex processing that is required
of a compiler or other system-level application. Those were false beliefs.
Saxonica has created a proof by counterexample that they are false beliefs.

That changes the world.

So ... it's time to do this:

- implement an XML Schema validator using XSLT
- implement an RDF ontology tool using XSLT
- implement a DFDL processor using XSLT
- and many others.

What are the other philosophical implications of an XSLT processor implemented
in XSLT?

/Roger