RE: [xsl] help understanding xslt processing model

["Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Some people are happy to learn from examples by trial and error; it looks to
me as if you're the sort of person who isn't content with that, and wants to
understand the underlying concepts.

That's the sort of person whom I had in mind as the target audience for my
XSLT Programmer's Reference. After using XSLT for a month or so you're
exactly at the right stage to get a lot of value from the book. The only
difficult choice is whether to get the 2nd edition (covering XSLT 1.0) or
the third (for XSLT 2.0) - note that in the latter case, you should get the
companion volume on XPath 2.0 as well. 

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/


> -----Original Message-----
> From: jonec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jonec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 31 August 2005 01:36
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [xsl] help understanding xslt processing model
> 
> HI,
> 
> I have quite a bit of programming experience but after using xslt forr
> about a month (using web and oreilly book mostly), I still am all too
> often befuddled as to why my output is a certain way and not 
> another :(
> 
> I can attribute allmost all my errors to a lack of 
> understanding of how
> the xslt processor is walking through the style sheet/input document
> and applying my rules and the default rules.
> 
> Could anyone perhaps point me to any good reference martial 
> on understandin
> g the model more in depth?
> 
> I really wish I could just see it in pseudo code; with the default
> template logic too. Just because that's the sort of thing I
> understand fairly readily, it shows the logic. foreach this do
> this, while this etc.
> 
> I'm using mostly libxslt on linux to transform xml to html. I've tried
> a few debuggers to see the walking through of the stylesheet as it
> happens, but the linux debuggers aren't very good and often can't make
> it through the sheet heh.
> 
> any help appreciated!
> thanks, Jone