Re: [xsl] Need some Advice

["Mailing Lists Mail daktapaal@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dimitre. You raised very valid points. They did not hire me to make
xslt2.0 work. they do not want xslt2.0 at all. the point that XSLT 2.0
wont work here is absolutely because the code is not even XSLT1.0
compliant. The resistance is partly political and partly because the
code is in production and there are no test cases that anyone can run
as regression. It's a million dollar financial services business in
the hands of a few developers that have no clue how to code. So there
is a fear that something may break and no one knows why!


On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 5:39 PM Dimitre Novatchev dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx
<xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > the clients are bound with XSLT1.0 and XSLT 2.0 does not work.
>
> If they hired you to "make XSLT 2.0 work", then they should give you time
and space to do this, otherwise this whole job is pointless. Certainly, if
they are actively undermining your effort, this raises red lights.
> It is a truth universally acknowledged that 99% of the existing XSLT 1.0
transformations continue to work as intended under XSLT 2.0. So, if they have
problems with this, the reason is probably that their "XSLT 1.0" code is not
even XSLT 1.0 - compliant.XSLT 2.0 was designed to support backwards
compatibility with XSLT 1.0, and there are just minor exceptions of this rules
where new features may break compatibility.
>
> If this whole contract hiring was just a gesture and a political maneuver to
convince someone that "this cannot be done", this stinks of politics from
miles, and based on my own experience I know that politics is the worst
interference that a developer may be hurt with -- so they simply don't deserve
to have a normal, thinking person clean their  crap.
>
> I have lived in Australia in the past and doubt that there is only a single
company that may need a knowledgeable XSLT developer. Also, due to Covid most
companies have realized the benefits of remote work, so distances such as
thousands of kilometers/miles are no longer an obstacle for hiring.
>
> A possible compromise that would also be a face-saving one, is reaching
agreement for a complete rewrite of their crap (sorry, ver. 1 code :) ). In
many similar cases a complete rewrite from scratch would be much faster and
painless than the nearly impossible task of turning junk into something
useful.
>
> Cheers,
> Dimitre
>
> On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 10:01 AM Mailing Lists Mail daktapaal@xxxxxxxxx
<xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Hello All,
>> I need some advice from you all. I have been working with XSLT for last 15
years and I have now come across a contract opportunity with a financial firm
in Australia and I am like weeks into it. I was told that the clients are
bound with XSLT1.0 and XSLT 2.0 does not work. I was wondering why it does not
work. I asked if they used MS parser etc. and nothing of that sort is
happening. When I looked into the code i figured why xslt2.0 wont work. it
wont because of the wrong coding. xml elements are coded as text using &lt;
and &gt; and the text  is not in the xsl:text and  xpaths are  all
unbelievable . No one with even 1 year of exp with xslt will even fathom such
xpaths. there are circular xpaths, no keys .. no variables. using the same
complicated xpaths over and over again in consecutive lines of code. and its
all a mess. Super mess and it makes me cry.  So messed up that you can not
format the code because you will break the spacing in the text nodes..The
reasoning.? The one who did the initial work was a contractor who did not know
Xslt.
>>
>> part 2 of the story..
>> I started coding and I have a muscle memory of doing the things in a
certain way ( hopefully the right way ).. I was pulled in into a meeting
saying that my code is messed up and that I am doing things the way that is
against the coding standards practice of company .. every line of the code was
changed to how they do it/// . keys removed, xsl:text removed, and every
nightmare i imagine was asked to make and by me. I checked in the code now
they way they do, knowing very well that it is messy..
>>
>> I am pulled everyday and told that my XSLT coding is not correct. I have
always stood as the XSLT conscience and people have learnt from me. Not
blowing trumpets of myself, but the current situation is very basic very very
basic. I did not do these mistakes on my first job with no experience.
>>
>> What do I do??
>> 1.Resign and let them be as they want to ?
>> 2. continue and do the coding the way they want and hopefully I will get
used to it in a couple of months and I suffer until then
>>
>> My heart breaks here to see the attitude that someone is holding my hand to
make me do bad things..... The attitude is clear. "you shall do as we say".
You can chuck your XSLT coding practices..
>>
>> Makes me remember a contractor who came home to cut trees. I asked him to
do it a certain way and he said he wouldn't do it even if I gave him 2000
GBP.
>>
>> Please advice.
>> Dr. Tapaal Dakota
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>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Dimitre Novatchev
> ---------------------------------------
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