Re: [xsl] What's your visual metaphor for XSL Transformations?

[Abel Braaksma <abel.online@xxxxxxxxx>]

Robert Koberg wrote:

> >   1. There is no need to have any source XML document.
> >       http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#initiating 
>
> whatev... seriously, do you consider this an arguement? How do you 
> transform nothing?

1. A short while ago, I put a UUID generator from XSLT to the list. It 
does not need any input and it will create any number of UUIDs.

2. One of our applications create a commands tree out of thin air. The 
XSLT is in 1.0 (it is browser based), but still doesn't need input 
(unfortunately, XSLT 1.0 did not provide such a means, so I use the 
simple-enough workaround to apply the XSLT on itself and discard the 
transformation). The commands are created by inputs and are provided 
with parameters. You could see it as a SOAP command generator, though 
the XML it generates is a bit simpler than that.

3. Another application we have generates a report of all kinds of system 
properties. This is handy for system administrators, it uses the 
system-property(xyz) with properties set in our application. Why XSLT? 
Because it is so easy to create XSL-FO from it and render it to a nice 
PDF or HTML page. No input there either.

4. If you take a look at FXSL you will see a lot of math there that does 
not require any input XML. It even has a random generator!

5. Most of my other transformations transform non-XML documents into 
XML. To do this, the XSLT is run without input document (-it for Saxon 
to start an initial template). The documents are read in with 
unparsed-text(). However, I do consider this input, albeit not XML.

I believe one can sail without wind, when you use a motorboat ;)

-- Abel