Re: [xsl] Processing inner elements

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:25 AM 12/30/2006, Abel wrote:
> There's much more to it, of course, and XSLT has quite a steep learning curve.

In my experience (and mind you, I teach this stuff), the XSLT 
learning curve may be a bit steep for some, at the beginning, but 
it's not high. You learn how templates work (as you suggest) and the 
hard part is over. From then on it's a smooth ascent -- at least 
until you start trying to solve problems the language wasn't designed for.

But for whatever reason, many people teaching themselves XSLT don't 
bother to learn how templates work. Maybe they assume that there's 
nothing to it (they would be wrong). Then they find the language 
intractable and difficult. But blaming XSLT for that is like blaming 
power-saw manufacturers for making their blades disc-shaped. (They're 
so hard to saw with!)

At least the OP had the sense to intuit that what he was missing was 
very basic. He called it "obvious", though it's not (unless you've 
seen similar things before). Once you'd taken it in, however, much 
else becomes so.

Cheers,
Wendell



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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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