Re: [xsl] [Ann] Oxygen XML Editor version 23 release

["Damian Morris damian@xxxxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think a huge part of the problem is

a) for many users, these systems are ancillary - theybre not part of the
core revenue generation system - and thus the emphasis is on cost
minimisation, rather than investment in the return they generate (ie, they
donbt generate a return); and

b) so many of our basic development tools - Python is a good example - are
built on free libraries that were once core systems for their developers
(libxml2, MSXML) but have not been core for more than a decade, and thus still
exist but have no development future (therebs no return to their developer
in developing them and hasnbt been for many years).

That is, either the systems that have been built on XSLT 1.0 are not core (or
at least are no longer core) to their owners, or their underlying stack
includes key subsystems that are not core (or are at least no longer core) to
*their* owners. Thus there is no investment model for either for which the
(opportunity) cost of further development does not exceed the value of that
development.


It's sad how very little of the value that the user community has got from
good XSLT processors has been fed back to the developers to produce better
XSLT processors.

Yes, indeed. If more developers of the key tools had a model like Saxonica
(and had managed to make it work) then at the least b) would not be true as
often as it is.




On 24 Nov 2020, at 5:44 am, Michael Kay
mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
<xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxx
rytech.com>> wrote:


AND, there are things tool vendors can to do make updating easier. For
example, providing guidance on how to "fix" things that "break" in such an
upgrade.

I've recently been trying to help a Saxon user who's managed to get about 10
major releases behind, and it isn't pretty. Most of the things we do to ease
upgrade, like keeping things deprecated for a release or two before they are
withdrawn, don't work in that situation. Their worst problem though is that
they don't have a decent set of regression tests so they just don't know
whether their upgrade has been successful or not. That plus the fact that if
you close your eyes for ten years and then open them up again, the world is a
different place and you're completely disoriented.

I'm afraid the more people get out of the habit of paying real money for the
software they use, the less the amount of investment that goes into such
luxuries. Even when users are paying, $500 doesn't buy you much support.

It's sad how very little of the value that the user community has got from
good XSLT processors has been fed back to the developers to produce better
XSLT processors.


Michael Kay
Saxonica
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