RE: XSL controversy

[James Robertson <jamesr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:05 8/08/1999 , Sebastian Rahtz wrote:

> Sean Mc Grath writes:
>  > I do electronic publishing with XML/SGML for a living and
>  > in my experience "funky" transformations are the norm rather than the
>  > exception. I can assure you that they are more than
>  > just of academic interest.
>
> Care to give some examples of day-to-day transformations that are beyond the
> scope of `normal' XSL? I am not doubting you, I am just curious as to
> what sort of things you have in mind.

Well, I jump in and help out Sean here ...

I too do electronic publishing for a living.
An example:

I have an online help database, consisting of
10,000 topics marked up in SGML/XML. Using Omnimark,
I publish this to WinHelp, RTF and HTML.

Looking at the HTML:

I produce 10,000 HTML files (one per topic), that
are extensively cross-linked, with tables of contents,
navigation bars, and supporting files.

Tables have special handling, as to particular
paragraphs. Nifty extensions abound, and every one
of them demanded by my clients. And I'm just about
to start into further improving it.

Of course, all of this has to work quickly
and efficiently, with a minimum performance
load on the machine ...

Interestingly, the WinHelp is the most complex
format, primarily because of the many limitations
and bugs of the WinHelp viewer.

Does this help you to get a sense of real-world
"funky" transformation?

(Did I mention that I've also built a process that
generated 30,000 HTML pages of legislation?)

Cheers,

J

-------------------------
James Robertson
Step Two Designs Pty Ltd
SGML, XML & HTML Consultancy
http://www.steptwo.com.au/
jamesr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Beyond the Idea"
 ACN 081 019 623


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