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RE: Wishes for XSL revisions ...
- From: Wendell Piez <wapiez at mulberrytech dot com>
- To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
- Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 16:31:17 -0500
- Subject: RE: [xsl] Wishes for XSL revisions ...
- Reply-to: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
Jonathan and all,
At 03:15 PM 12/27/01, you wrote:
>I agree "Go all the way" for a programming language. XSL even does not
>have a "break" statement. For a simple thing, using XSL has to write
>piles of piles of code.
Whatever happened to the idea of using the right tool for the job? Any
number of other languages have better and better support for XML built in.
If XSL turns into an all-purpose combination utility
knife-wrench-screwdriver-with-magnifying-glass-bottle-opener, it'll be
impossible to learn as well as implement.
If you have to write piles and piles of code to do a simple thing in XSLT,
then maybe you're trying to use the wrong tool. Some things that are hard
in other languages, are exceedingly simple in XSLT and don't require piles
and piles of code. It is on these cases that XSLT's success is built -- not
on the edge cases which are possible but difficult (and on which this list
naturally spends a preponderance of time and energy -- partly just trying
to help, partly out of interest and curiosity in training our beloved and
faithful dog to dance).
If we say "Wow, XSLT is powerful, let's get it so it can draw maps", we may
end up killing exactly what made it so good to begin with. You can always
generate your SVG with the help of Java, Python or C if you need heavy
number-crunching and layout algorithms.
What *I* think would be nice would be the capability to call, from within
your stylesheet, home-grown extension elements and functions (maybe in your
own namespace?) to do things that XSLT doesn't do. But wait! that's in XSLT
1.0!
Cheers,
Wendell
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Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@mulberrytech.com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
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