Re: [xsl] I love programs that output programs

["Dimitre Novatchev dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> As Dmitre notes, itbs easy to write things that are hard to read, so
>   you do have to be careful not to overdo it.

In my practice I have done something more practical and convenient than
writing an XSLT transformation ( a set of stylesheets)  that generates
another XSLT transformation (another set of stylesheets) that generates yet
another XSLT transformation (yet another set of stylesheets), ..., and so
on, ... , ad finitum  ...

What is significantly more pragmatic, convenient, readable and doable is to
write:

   - Just one set of stylesheets/templates.
   - Generate as the result of each pass new data (XML).
   - Have all templates that must transform DataN.xml into
   DataNPlusOne.xml, be in the same mode, let us call it "passN".

This really works well, much better than generating XSLT code again and
again, though even this better approach has its limits: when I wrote such a
5-6 pass transformation, there was no one that could understand what this
was doing, but me ...




On Fri, Jan 17, 2025 at 9:46b/PM Liam R. E. Quin liam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <
xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Fri, 2025-01-17 at 20:22 +0000, Roger L Costello costello@xxxxxxxxx
> wrote:
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> > Recently I was reading Brian Kernighan's new book on AWK,
>
> Awksome! I hadn't known there was one.
>
> One of the first complex text processing programs i wrote was to read a
> bunch of text files, identify all of the references, and produce a sed
> script that would replace them with calls to a "refer" database (refer,
> written by Mike Lesk at Bell labs in the Unix group, was the
> inspiration for bibtex).
>
> Coincidentally the source code for refer was pretty weird, and i
> remember
>         main(argc, argv)
>          int argc; char **argv;
>         {
>           . . .
>           if (argv[0] < 16000) {
>               ...
>           }
>         }
> which to anyone who knows C was a little startling.
>
> Programs that produce programs can be super useful.
>
> Ibve done a bit with generating XSLT on the fly with XSLT, and then
> running it with fn:transform(), which can be super powerful.
>
> Although much of the need to do that is reduced by XSLT shadow
> attributes, there are still cases where itbs helpful. An example might
> be reading a namespace name from an input document, and writing XSLT on
> the fly to remove it without affecting others. Therebs other ways to do
> that, but hey, itbs fun :)
>
> As Dmitre notes, itbs easy to write things that are hard to read, so
> you do have to be careful not to overdo it.
>
> liam
>
>
> --
> Liam Quin, https://www.delightfulcomputing.com/
> Available for XML/Document/Information Architecture/XSLT/
> XSL/XQuery/Web/Text Processing/A11Y training, work & consulting.
> Barefoot Web-slave, antique illustrations:  http://www.fromoldbooks.org
>
>
>

--
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
---------------------------------------
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
-------------------------------------
Never fight an inanimate object
-------------------------------------
To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the
biggest mistake of all
------------------------------------
Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
-------------------------------------
You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play
-------------------------------------
To achieve the impossible dream, try going to sleep.
-------------------------------------
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
-------------------------------------
Typing monkeys will write all Shakespeare's works in 200yrs.Will they write
all patents, too? :)
-------------------------------------
Sanity is madness put to good use.
-------------------------------------
I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.