RE: [xsl] XSLT model not "natural"? [was Re: [ANN] FreeMarker 2.3 as an alternative to XSLT]

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 05:42 PM 6/27/2003, Mike wrote (about learning XSLT):
> I went up this learning curve myself about 4-5 years ago. I didn't find
> it easy. I never do find new concepts easy. I struggled when I first
> learnt SQL, when I learnt goto-less programming, when I learnt
> object-oriented programming - I even remember struggling the first time
> I had to understand subroutines. But each time, I've got to the top of
> the hill and never looked back. It's worth the climb.

I should add that I also found it challenging -- but fun, and hence, for 
all its challenges (I remember a fever-dream I had in which I climbed 
around inside a node set until I'd figured out how to write a table-driven 
generalized node-renaming transform) -- easy.

And I was lucky. I had the expert guidance of a sophisticated private tutor 
(my erstwhile colleague, Tony Graham), had some DSSSL experience (you think 
XSLT is hard to get your head around, you should try DSSSL!), but never had 
learned Pascal.

The bottom line is, a great deal depends, as when learning anything new, on 
your attitude going in. If you dread the prospect, it'll be hard. If you 
expect to have fun learning how to get things done with a powerful new 
instrument, it'll be easy. It's in the context of this awareness that I get 
bugged by all the claims of how hard XSLT is: that only becomes a 
self-fulfilling prophecy, for those unwary enough to believe it.

Cheers,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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